Tag: Confirmation

Daily Check-In 04/03/2018

Tuesday April 3rd.  And it’s my 200th blog post!

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION:  TRUMP IS A SUBJECT OF THE INVESTIGATION

Way to kick off my 200th post!  President Donald J. Trump is officially a subject in a criminal investigation.

Time for some semantics…

The difference between a subject and a target in a criminal investigation is twofold.  First, assuming the prosecutor isn’t lying to keep the person at ease, a subject is someone who hasn’t been charged with a crime yet.  If the prosecutor is lying, they’ll tell the person that they’re a subject but not a target to get something out of them, like an interview.

But that’s not the biggest part of this story.

Per the Special Counselor regulations, Mueller’s team is required to submit a report to the Attorney General, or acting Attorney General  who appointed the Special Counselor.  In this case, that would be Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.  Mueller wants to interview Trump so he can wrap up the Obstruction part of their report.

The special counsel also told Trump’s lawyers that he is preparing a report about the president’s actions while in office and potential obstruction of justice, according to two people with knowledge of the conversations.

Mueller reiterated the need to interview Trump — both to understand whether he had any corrupt intent to thwart the Russia investigation and to complete this portion of his probe, the people said.

The Mueller team is ready to wrap this up.  The interview is the last piece, and they already know the answers to the questions they’re going to ask.  They just need to fill in the sections where Trump lies his ass off.

Now, why’s that report so important?  Three big reasons why…

First, this answers all of the questions the public has about Trump’s Obstruction of Justice.

Second, it signals the end of a major phase of the investigation.  They’ve got all they need to reach their conclusion.

Finally, this report forms the basis of the actions that follow.  Let’s assume, for a moment, that Robert Mueller finds something criminal in his investigation against Trump and his retinue (Shocking, I know).  Since the decision is still up in the air about whether or not Mueller can directly indict Trump, and the proper course in the Constitution for handling a corrupt President is through Congressional Impeachment, this report would form the basis for Impeachment proceedings.

If, however, Congress refuses to take action on criminal findings, then we’re left in the historic position of the Special Counselor indicting a sitting President.

By the way, this story also explains Trump’s wrath against Amazon for the past week.  As noted in the following stories:

Jeff Bezos owns both Amazon and The Washington Post.  Trump can’t shut down WaPo, but he could try to make life miserable for Jeff.  The guy so rich that he bought Whole Foods for a price worth 4 times all of Trump’s properties, with his profits from a couple months from Amazon.

 

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein explicitly authorized the Justice Department’s special counsel to investigate allegations that President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman colluded with the Russian government, according to a court filing late Monday night.

Wow.

Here is a link to filing (282 pages!)  Rosenstein’s memo is the last two pages.

Something that I caught on Rachel Maddow was a little something on page 42 of the briefing.  (Page 50 of the PDF, it includes the Table of Contents.)

As explained above, every key step in this case—including the investigative path and the
Indictment itself—has been authorized by the Acting Attorney General through ongoing
consultation. Additionally, under the applicable rules, the National Security Division (NSD)
approved the charges relating to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), and the Tax Division
approved the tax-related charges. See 28 C.F.R. § 600.7(a) (special counsel is to comply with
Department of Justice rules, regulations, procedures, and policies); USAM § 6-4.200 (Tax Division
must approve all criminal tax charges); USAM § 9-90.710 (NSD must approve FARA charges).
And the Senior Assistant Special Counsel in charge of this prosecution is a long time, career
prosecutor with the internal authority to conduct this prosecution, separate and aside from his role
in the Special Counsel’s Office. In light of the ongoing supervision by the Acting Attorney General
and involvement by other career DOJ attorneys, any error claimed by Manafort would be harmless.

So, what does this legalese mean?  Two things.

First, the Special Counselor’s team was not working alone.  They’re working with other law enforcement groups in the government.  NSD is a part of the Main Justice Department.  The Tax Division is from the Treasury Department.

Second, and biggest of all, the Senior Assistant Special Counsel has complete authorization to prosecute these cases outside of their role on the Special Counselor’s team.

This is the goddamned dead man’s switch.  The poison pill.  The Hydra.

We have proof that if Mueller is removed, The Justice League has their marching orders; prosecute the cases, nothing changes, continue the work.  The only difference is that instead of 1 Lead Federal Prosecutor, there would be half a dozen or more.

 

 

Alex Van der Zwaan will head to prison for 30 days, get a $20,000 fine, and 3 months probation.  He’s allowed to leave the country and return to London after serving his jail time.

Alex was Rick Gates’s lawyer at one point, and tried to delete emails regarding his knowledge of dealings with Rick Gates, Paul Manafort, and Russian GRU officer Konstantin Kiliminik.

Alex is also the son-in-law of German Khan, founder of Alfa Group and a Russian Oligarch with very close ties to Vladimir Putin.

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINES 

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

TRADE WAR WITH CHINA: SAY GOODBYE TO THE ECONOMY

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS:  SCOTT PRUITT GETS THE “VOTE OF CONFIDENCE”, TRUMP HATES BROWN PEOPLE

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

TRUMP ORG CORRUPTION, FROM THE WATER IS WET DEPARTMENT

 

 

 

 

 

 

CAN WE GET BACK TO POLITICS?

 

RUMOR MILL

Spicy goes into some more details and speculations about what was redacted in that memo from DAG Rosenstein.

Remember the Florida teacher that was fired for being an Alt Right piece of trash?  This article was from March 4th.  Earlier today, she resigned from her teaching job after she was outed for hosting a White Supremacists podcast.

Well, while everyone else was focusing on the racism, Louise caught something else.  Dayanna, an ethnic Russian, is part of the Russian Troll Army.  No one big, just a glorified foot soldier out there pushing Russian Active Measures, pushing Putin’s agenda, whether she knows it or not.  More likely than not, she knows what she’s doing.

Not all of the trolls are computer algorithms or neckbeards in Moscow or St. Petersburg.  Some of them are here, real people, in America.

 

That’s it for today.  200 posts on this site, and what better way to hit that milestone than with confirmation that the President of the United State is a subject in a criminal conspiracy.

Because of this, we are officially in historical territory.  The only other time that a sitting President was ever the subject of a criminal investigation was Nixon with Watergate, and even that could be debated, as his impeachment was scheduled before the investigation wrapped up.

Also, this interview was a month ago, in early March, when the two teams were negotiating an interview.  Daily Check-In 03/15/2018 mentioned Trump’s team being served with a subpoena for documents from Trump Org, and later that month, Jon Dowd quit on Daily Check-In 03/22/2018.

We’re fast approaching the end of the act.  Either Trump will agree to an interview, he’ll be summoned before a Grand Jury, or Mueller will decide that he doesn’t need his testimony.  Once that occurs, my guess is that we’ll see things get crazy from there on out.  I don’t know how or what form exactly things will take, but once the Trump Interview is out of the way, we enter the next phase.  The arrest for obstruction and investigate the criminals and traitors phase.

I want to give my sincere thanks to everyone who reads this site, both in real time as this unfolds, and anyone reading from after this clusterfuck unravels.

Muchos gracias, dhanyavad, merci beaucoup, Danke, tack, grazie, domo arigato, shukraan, Dziekuje Ci, dank je.

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

 

 

 

 

Daily Check-In 04/02/2018

Monday April 1st and Easter Weekend.  And April Fool’s.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Van der Zwaan’s forfeiture of his Freedom of Information Act ability prevents him from interfering with the Mueller investigation by requesting documents from it, tipping others off to “investigative facts that are otherwise not known” and burdening the office with freedom of information tasks, the prosecutors told the judge Monday. The filing notes “the scarce resources of the special counsel’s office” and how it may face “drain” if asked to “assemble records and to help explain to others both their significance and the potential that their release could harm the ongoing investigation.”

Alex Van der Zwaan is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday around 10am EST.  He’ll be the first person to reach this stage in the Mueller Investigation.

George looks like he has a bad habit of saying things when he’s drinking.

His GoFundMe raised over half a million dollars in less than a week, far surpassing it’s goals.

Repeatedly, Roger Stone claimed that he had communicated with Julian Assange and Guccifer 2.0.  The first represents a hostile non-state intelligence service, and the second is a member of the GRU.  His best case scenario is a case of espionage against the United States.

I was very skeptical about Ted’s claims, right until Business Insider confirmed the Grand Jury subpoena.

Erik Prince met with Kirill Dmitriev.  Kirill’s wife Natalia Popova is very close to Putin’s daughter Yekaterina Tikhonova, and runs a foundation with her.

Once again, Trump cow-tows to his Russian master, and it’s the Kremlin that tells the Americans about Trump’s actions.

 

Remember, Amazon owner Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post, the leading newspaper working to expose Trump’s corruption, criminality, and treasonous and traitorous behavior.

This is how a criminal acts.

 

SINCLAIR PROPAGADANA AND ATTEMPTS AT STATE RUN MEDIA

 

 

CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA AND FACEBOOK

 

 

#NEVERAGAIN

The man who was too much of a coward to serve his country when called upon and got out of serving by shitting his pants in front of the draft board, questioned the integrity and soul of kids who saw their friends die in front of them?

By the way, there’s an easy joke about Ted Nugent fucking a teenage girl joke hanging out there, but his music is enough of a joke.

 

 

RED STATE TEACHER STRIKES

 

 

SAY GOODBYE TO THE ECONOMY

 

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS, THE “TRUMP HATES BROWN PEOPLE AND THE FUTURE” EDITION

 

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

 

STORMYWATCH, FROM THE STORMCENTER 6000 METEOROPORNOLOGICAL CENTER

In the lawsuit filed March 26 in Manhattan federal court, Jessica Denson, who oversaw phone bank and Hispanic outreach for the campaign, said she became the target of harassing remarks and behavior by a superior. She previously filed a discrimination case against Donald Trump for President Inc. in New York state court, but the Trump campaign has sought to enforce the confidentiality deal, documents show.

One thing that I hope comes out of this clusterfuck of a time line is that we get rid of Non-Disclosure Agreements and Binding Arbitration clauses in contracts.

 

CAN WE GET BACK TO POLITICS?

 

RUMOR MILL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a great write-up by John Schindler about Konstantin Kiliminik and the GRU.  They’re even scarier than I thought.

 

 

 

 

Jay McKenzie has a great series of posts going into Trump’s mob ties.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s it for today.  The writing is a little sparse today.  There were a lot of individual stories, and not enough time to properly cover them all.  Let’s see what the rest of the week holds.

I’m going to start adding some more short-form posts to fill out the new sections that I’m adding.  I’ve also been thinking about doing interviews and having the occasional guest writer.  Let’s see how that goes.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 03/30/2018

Friday, March 30th.  Good Friday, for those into that kind of thing.  For the non-religious out there, Happy “Good luck trying to get a bacon cheeseburger and not fish for lunch” day.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Yevgeny Nikulin was a hacker that was involved in many computer crimes, including a possible link to the Weiner Laptop Drama from shortly before the 2016 election.  Louise was on this guy a while back.

Why do I have a feeling that when Roger Stone goes down, he’ll try to make some type of crazy last stand that ends with suicide by cop?

This last one was in the Rumor Mill yesterday Daily Check-In 03/29/2018.  It’s being reported by multiple outlets like The Guardian, so I’m less skeptical of the story, but it’s basically reporting that Ted Malloch said he was stopped by the FBI.  There are no statements from anyone else there.  Nothing from the FBI, his family, or any other witnesses.  The only reports are from Ted and his friends, who aren’t exactly the most reputable characters.

Plus, there’s a detail I can’t shake.  Ted says the FBI confiscated his phones, but he called one of his friends during interview.  Then, they took his phones with them as evidence.

Something doesn’t add up on that.  For the FBI to confiscate his electronics, they’d need a warrant.  There’s no mention that he had a lawyer present, yet they interrogated him pretty hard.  Meanwhile, every other instance of the FBI interviewing someone in this case has them going out of their way to not do any activities that could even be slightly interpreted as improper or illegal.  When George Nader was stopped (Daily Check-In 03/06/2018), Ted’s story is pretty similar.  With George Papadopoulos, his arrest was so by-the-book that the FBI didn’t ask him any questions until after his lawyer showed up.

I’m halfway between misinformation and planted honesty.  We’ll see where this goes.

 

CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA AND FACEBOOK

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

TEACHER STRIKES IN CONSERVATIVE AMERICA

Following years of anti-union, anti-government, and anti-social policies, teachers in Kentucky, Arizona, and Oklahoma are following West Virginia’s lead with state-wide strikes.

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

STORMYWATCH, FROM THE STORMCENTER 6000 METEOROPORONOLOGICAL CENTER

 

MEDIA MATTERS, AND WHY MEDIA MATTERS

Sinclair Broadcasting is forcing local news channels to spread pro-Trump propaganda.  There is no reason to pussyfoot around this.

 

CAN WE GET BACK TO POLITICS?

 

 

RUMOR MILL: CHURCHBELLS ARE RINGING

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eric Garland posted Houston megachurch pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell insists bonds he sold are legitimate earlier today.  Aside from getting a kick out of watching one of these megachurch pastors getting busted on Good Friday, I like it because it reminds me to keep churches in the spotlight.

One of the tools used to funnel Russian money into the Republican Party in 2016 was the church system.  Just like the NRA, they were used to infiltrate the party and serve as proxies for Russian interests in the election.

Plus, I personally find the whole idea of the megachurch to be an affront to piety and humility that religion claims as its primary qualities.  Nothing says hypocrisy like telling an 80 year old woman living off of her Social Security check that she needs to give more money to a multimillionaire to buy a private plane and third summer home.

 

 

That’s it for today.  It’s a little short today.  Last night was a long one for me, and I’m working on about 3 hours of sleep.  I try not to write when I get too tired.  I make stupid mistakes, and don’t catch them until it’s too late.  Besides, my to-do list is pretty crazy.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

 

 

Daily Check-In 03/29/2018

Thursday March 29th

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION:  MUELLER DOESN’T NEED GATES FOR MANAFORT BUT FOR TRUMP; INVESTIGATING JEFF SESSIONS AT THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION

In a short succession Thursday afternoon, the three stories above dropped in rapid succession.

The first, in the order that I received the updates, was that Jeff Sessions was not going to name an Special Counselor to investigate the Special Counselor, much to the chagrin of several vocal Trump coconspirators Republican Representatives in Congress demanded it.  Attorney General Jeff Sessions will appoint the US Attorney from Utah to investigate internal procedures of the DOJ and FBI, but he said that the events in question do not meet the threshold for a Special Investigator.

As I was reading this story, I saw an alert on Twitter that Mueller had asked several witnesses before a Grand Jury about their knowledge of contacts between the Russians and Trump Campaign at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, specifically about Jeff Sessions and the Russian Ambassador, Sergei Kislyak.  This was from several weeks ago, but was just being reported now, as usual.

Finally, as I finished up that article, there was another one from CNN that tied it all together.  Mueller didn’t need to flip Gates to take down Paul Manafort.  He flipped Gates to take down the rest of the Trump Campaign.

Now, when I see 2+2, I don’t think Potato Salad, I think 4.

So, when I see three stories about Jeff Sessions, Russian contacts, and Rick Gates, I don’t think “Gee, what a coinkidink.”  I think “Damn, Gates gave Mueller enough rope to hang the Keebler Nazi.”

Rick Gates was the Deputy Campaign Chairman, and later the Chief of Staff to the head of the Trump Inaugural Committee.  He knowingly worked with Russian GRU Agent Konstanin Kilimnik (Confirmed at Person A, that’s 20 bucks for me) with Manafort during the campaign, and was involved in every major action from the beginning of the campaign to the end.  Their connections to Russian Oligarchs like Oleg Deripaska was a feature, not a bug.

I think Jeff Sessions had a clue about what Mueller was doing, too.  He’s on slippery ground, and if he made a move to try to institute a Special Counselor to investigate the Special Counselor investigating his actions, this could easily be seen as Obstruction of Justice.  The FBI hates him, the rank and file DOJ want to crucify him, the USIC has him dead to rights, and Mueller’s sending this message saying “Go ahead, let’s see how long you last.”

 

#NEVERAGAIN

Note to self:  Never pick a fight on Social Media with kids that survived a massacre.  It’s like Batman fighting Bane in the dark.  I merely adopted the Social Media.  They were born by it, bred by it.

 

STORMYWATCH, FROM THE STORMCENTER 6000 METEOROPORNOLOGICAL CENTER

Michael Cohen is a terrible lawyer.  This time, his incompetence could force Trump to testify in a deposition about Stormy Daniels.

This article breaks the point down like this…

The NDA is so horribly written, and completely one-sided, that it is likely that the whole thing is thrown out.  Not just a section or two, but the whole contract.

Further, there is an arbitration clause in the contract, but only covers disputes between Trump and Stormy, nothing involving Cohen.  Since Cohen isn’t covered by the arbitration clause, he can’t force this case in front of an arbitrator, only Trump could.  But, since Trump never signed the agreement, and the current defense Cohen is working with is that he acted completely without Trump’s knowledge, Trump can’t force this claim to arbitration either.

Also, Cohen’s excuse is a direct and gross violation of the New York State Bar Association.  Cohen is tap-dancing in the disbarment minefield.

MAGA.  Make Attorneys Get Attorneys.

Michael was the fixer. It could be anything. There were a ton of matters that took place that Michael fixed and Donald Trump wasn’t involved in every single matter,” Schwartz said. He then walked that back, saying he meant business problems in general, and suggesting that business leaders commonly have a fixer authorized to pay people off without their knowledge.

JFC.  Really?  Trump’s Lawyer’s Lawyer just implied that Cohen is Trump’s fixer (like the mob), that he operated without his knowledge and consent, and does so for other matters as well.

Wow.  This is like saying “my client couldn’t have robbed the bank because he was busy killing some people at the time of the robbery.”

 

TRUMP ORG AND CORRUPTION, FROM THE WATER IS WET DEPARTMENT

Emoluments.  This is yet another lawsuit that Trump is currently facing, this time brought by local AG’s against Trump Org and Trump for illegally accepting emoluments, or payments, from foreign governments via his hotels.

A visiting delegation from Thailand arrives in Washington, D.C.  Instead of staying at the Ritz, Hilton, or Four Seasons, they’re staying at Trump International Hotel, and scuttlebutt says it is because the White House told them to stay there.  This is the definition of corruption.

Trump and his daughter Ivanka spent hours at Trump Tower with the Russian, Igor Krutoy, who also knows attendees of a fateful meeting at the same building during the 2016 US election campaign.

Krutoy, a well-known composer in Russia, has written music for Emin Agalarov, the Russian singer whose father hosted Trump’s 2013 Miss Universe contest in Moscow. Krutoy attended the contest, where he was photographed with Trump.

Emin once named Krutoy as one of his closest friends in music. Public records show the Krutoys and the Agalarovs owned neighbouring houses in New Jersey in the 1990s, and now own condominiums in the same luxury complex in Florida. Krutoy said he considered the Agalarovs as acquaintances rather than friends.

In June 2016, the Agalarovs attended a meeting at Trump Tower with senior campaign officials that is now a flashpoint for Mueller’s investigation. Emin’s manager emailed Donald Trump Jr beforehand to say the Agalarovs would bring dirt on Hillary Clinton from the Russian government. Trump Jr responded enthusiastically.

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

Shulkin was still a corrupt POS, but this is one of those “Heel vs. Heel” battles.  I want to see them destroy each other.

COLD WAR 2.0

Good news about Yulia.  Know what’s worse than trying an obviously politically motivated assassination on foreign soil?  Fucking it up.

 

CAN WE GET BACK TO POLITICS?

Starving the Beast.  That’s what Reagan called it back in the 1980’s.  Cut taxes coming in to the government that pay for social programs like Medicare and Welfare, then push to cut those programs while funneling even more money to the rich and greedy.

 

 

 

RUMOR MILL

Take this with a lot of salt.  The only sources I could find on this story all came from the Tin Foil Hat-osphere.  Prison Planet, InfoWars, and their ilk disgust me for their lack of journalistic integrity and obvious bias, as well as their willingness to exploit their readers for their own personal gains.  If I have a story that I wrote that I don’t like the outcome or if it goes against the narrative I want to build, I’ll still write about it.  I won’t deny it’s existence and blame the Lizardmen of Mars.

 

That’s it for today.  Well, yesterday.  I’m a little late on posting.  Life happens.  This weekend, I hope to start the Gun Control series, take a look at the various lawsuits and legal problems facing Trump, and a wrestling inspired post, hopefully before Wrestlemania.

Yes, I’m a wrestling fan.  Even took part in a couple matches when I was younger.  I’ll explain that later.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur