Thursday March 22nd.

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

• House Dem moves to force vote on bill protecting Mueller

Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN) moved on Wednesday to have the House vote on protecting the Special Counsel’s Investigation into Russia by use of a discharge petition.  If a majority of representatives sign the petition, the Speaker of the House is required to bring the bill to the floor for a debate and vote.

This does two things.

First, it shows how much Paul Ryan is obstructing the Russian Investigation.  By refusing to bring this to the floor and requiring this kind of maneuver in the first place, it shows indifference.  Combine this with the fact that Devin Nunes is still the head of the HPSCI, this smells like obstruction.

Second, if it passes it forces a vote, and it puts everyone on the record with a public vote.  Each and every member of the House will have their votes recorded on whether or not they think that the investigation and its team should be protected.  There is 100% certainty that anyone who votes “No” on that measure will have it used against them in an re-election ad this fall.

• Mueller Grants Immunity to Organizer of Seychelles Back Channel Meeting, Calls Him Back
•  How 2 Gulf Monarchies Sought to Influence the White House(NYT Article mentioned in above DailyKos article)

Mr. Nader’s cultivation of Mr. Broidy, laid out in documents provided to The New York Times, provides a case study in the way two Persian Gulf monarchies have sought to gain influence inside the Trump White House. Mr. Nader has been granted immunity in a deal for his cooperation with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, according to people familiar with the matter, and his relationship with Mr. Broidy may also offer clues to the direction of that inquiry.

Mr. Nader has now been called back from abroad to provide additional testimony, one person familiar with the matter said this week. Mr. Mueller’s investigators have already asked witnesses about Mr. Nader’s contacts with top Trump administration officials and about his possible role in funneling Emirati money to Mr. Trump’s political efforts, a sign that the investigation has broadened to examine the role of foreign money in the Trump administration.

…

High on the agenda of the two men — George Nader, a political adviser to the de facto ruler of the U.A.E., and Elliott Broidy, the deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee — was pushing the White House to remove Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, backing confrontational approaches to Iran and Qatar and repeatedly pressing the president to meet privately outside the White House with the leader of the U.A.E.

Rumor has hit that Erik Prince has significant ties to Chinese Intelligence. Considering that Blackwater was bought out and renamed Xi at one point, there’s some credence to this.

Nader knows a whole helluva lot about all of Erik’s dealings, and those of his family, including sister Betsy DeVos.

The part I can’t shake is why grant immunity to a convicted pedophile? If I were a defense attorney, the first thing I’d do is attack his character as a witness, hammer the point home so hard that all the jury can think of when he speaks how he likes to screw young boys.

Unless they can’t use that defense…

Nader has to be able to corroborate something terrible, even worse than Erik’s meeting with the Russians, to make an immunity deal make sense.

• George Nader, a key witness in Mueller’s Russia probe flees the US

• Trump appears to gloat about using Cambridge Analytica to beat Hillary Clinton in 2016

“Remember when they were saying, during the campaign, that Donald Trump is giving great speeches and drawing big crowds, but he is spending much less money and not using social media as well as Crooked Hillary’s large and highly sophisticated staff. Well, not saying that anymore!”

This isn’t a tweet from months ago, years ago, or even a couple weeks ago.  This was from today.  This morning.  Right as Cambridge Analytica is being dragged through the mud, and Congress is demanding their CEO show up to answer questions.

• “Now I’m F—ing Doing It My Way”: Jubilant and Self-Liberated, the President Prepares for War with Mueller
• John Dowd Resigns as Trump’s Lead Lawyer in Special Counsel Inquiry

Mr. Dowd, who took over the president’s legal team last summer, had considered leaving several times in recent months and ultimately concluded that Mr. Trump was increasingly ignoring his advice, one of the people said. Mr. Trump has insisted he should sit for an interview with the special counsel’s office, even though Mr. Dowd believed it was a bad idea.

Jon Dowd was the closest thing that the Trump legal team had to a competent lawyer.  Trump fired him/Dowd quit because Trump won’t listen to his lawyers to avoid legal trouble.

Instead, he now has a team full of Fox News contributors working as his legal team.  Like Rachel Maddow said, this is a PR team designed to explain Trump’s actions, not to prevent him from going to jail.

• John Bolton’s Curious Appearance In A Russian Gun Rights Video
• EXCLUSIVE: ‘Lone DNC Hacker’ Guccifer 2.0 Slipped Up and Revealed He Was a Russian Intelligence Officer

We have confirmation that Guccifer 2.0 is Russian GRU.

But on one occasion, The Daily Beast has learned, Guccifer failed to activate the VPN client before logging on. As a result, he left a real, Moscow-based Internet Protocol address in the server logs of an American social media company, according to a source familiar with the government’s Guccifer investigation. Twitter and WordPress were Guccifer 2.0’s favored outlets. Neither company would comment for this story, and Guccifer did not respond to a direct message on Twitter.

Working off the IP address, U.S. investigators identified Guccifer 2.0 as a particular GRU officer working out of the agency’s headquarters on Grizodubovoy Street in Moscow. (The Daily Beast’s sources did not disclose which particular officer worked as Guccifer.)

This is huge.

I’ve described before how IP addresses work in Daily Check-In 02/21/2018, so I don’t need as much detail here, but here’s how a VPN works…

VPN’s, or Virtual Private Networks, are like wormholes through the internet.  Connect to the VPN at one point, and the connection tunnels it’s way to the server the VPN is hosted. All access to the internet is handled from the VPN host’s location, so it appears that everything done by the computer is taking place from the VPN.

Guccifer 2.0 was using Elite VPN, headquartered out of Russia but hosted out of France.  Any IP traces of their traffic from the outside would trace it to a server in France.

Except that one time that they forgot to launch the VPN before logging on.

Once that happened, it was game over.  USIC grabbed the IP addresses, and either them or friendly IC, like the Dutch (Daily Check-In 01/26/2018) traced the IP to the specific computer and pwned it.

Pwn=Utter defeat.  To completely get the better of.

I’ve mentioned many times before that Guccifer 2.0 was Russian.  But this is proof from the Mainstream Media, from the Press.  Evidence that Roger Stone bragged about working with a Russian Intelligence Agent.  Evidence that Aaron Nevins, a GOP operative from Florida, received stolen documents from a Russian Intelligence Agent.  Evidence that Julian Assange received the stolen emails from a Russian Intelligence Agent.

Evidence that a Russian Intelligence Agent had possession of stolen emails from an American political party, and used them to impact the election.

Friday morning is going to be lit.

Lit=Turned up, excited, popping, over the top.

CAPITOL HILL

• House prepares for rapid vote today on jam-packed $1.3 trillion spending deal
• Congress rejects much of Betsy DeVos’s agenda in spending bill
• House panel finds no Trump-Russia collusion, recommends leak crackdown
• Mad Dog PAC | Dear Bob…take your SUBPOENA & shove it
• WATCH: Judiciary chairman questions whether Comey lied to Congress | TheHill
• House Intel Republicans shoot down hearing with Zuckerberg

History is going to look back at this and say that it was the most brazen example of partisan politics.  In the same two week span that news breaks of Cambridge Analytica working with the Trump Campaign with stolen Facebook data, the House Intelligence Committee says that the Trump Campaign did not collude with the Russians, even though they didn’t investigate CA or Facebook, and refused to even interview them.  On top of that, the House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed the FBI for “abuses in the DOJ”, and not the Attorney General or anyone involved in the McCabe firing.

Here’s a list of things that the Democrats weren’t allowed to research:

FACEBOOK AND CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA

• ‘I’m not going to be bullied by Facebook’: Cambridge Analytica whistleblower tells his story
• Mueller examining Cambridge Analytica, Trump campaign ties
• Peter Thiel sells most of remaining Facebook stake | Article [AMP] | Reuters
• Ex-Facebook Executive: “You Don’t Realize It But You Are Being Programmed”
• Twitter’s chief information security officer is leaving the company | The Verge
• The NRA Used Cambridge Analytica For 2016 ‘Trigger The Vote’ Campaign
• John Bolton Also Relied on Cambridge Analytica

One group of scumbags using a shady organization is odd.  Two is suspicious.  All of the scumbags using the same shady organization reeks of conspiracy.

#NEVERAGAIN

• Obamas To Parkland Teens: You’ve Awakened The Nation’s Conscience
• The School Shooting Generation Has Had Enough
• Vermont Lawmakers Consider Gun Magazine Capacity Limits
• Bill Murray The Parkland kids remind me of the students who helped end the Vietnam War
• After A Two Decade Ban, Congress Finally Says The Federal Government Can Study Gun Violence

The massive spending bill that needs to pass by Friday to avoid yet another government shutdown includes two bills that improve gun safety in this country.

The first bill cleans up language of a previous bill which prevented the Centers for Disease Control from researching anything related to gun violence for the last two decades.

The second, called “Fix NICS”, aims to improve state reporting to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.  Right now, not every state is required to submit information to it.  This bill would mandate that they do have to participate in it, but doesn’t include punishment for not taking part.  It does include blocks of grant money that the states can use to offset the administrative costs of getting their systems to work with NICS.

Baby steps.  That’s how we’ll fix this, with small steps one at a time, until we’re running.

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

• Biden Would ‘Go Down Fast and Hard’ Says Borderline-Obese 71-Year-Old With Bone Spurs
• The Washington Post: McMaster out as national security adviser, will be replaced by John Bolton

John Bolton is bad.  Real bad.  He was the craziest person in the Bush Administration, and was trying to start wars in Iran, North Korea, and anyone else he could justify.

I’m trying to stay calm.  He takes over for McMaster on April 9th.  A lot can happen in two weeks.

By the way, anyone else not surprised that Trump moved to fire McMaster after McMaster called out the Russians for their attack on Sergei Skripal?

AUSTIN

• The Austin bombing suspect was a homeschooled Christian conservative.
• Austin bomber Mark Anthony Conditt was part of Christian survivalist group that discussed ‘dangerous’ chemicals
• Americans are more likely to be attacked by far-right terrorists than Islamists
• Attorney General Ken Paxton Spread False Information on Austin Bombings

By 9:49 p.m., Paxton told KVUE that the devices were not connected and that he merely had repeated bad information. “I was on the show, one of my law enforcement guys called, because I was just sitting in the chair and they were coming to me periodically, and he was giving me information. He said, ‘I have no reason to believe this isn’t the same person.’ So that’s what I gave to Sean Hannity. When I got off the show, I called the Austin PD chief and talked to him. He gave me a different version, saying they were pretty sure it was unrelated, that it was an incendiary device that somebody threw in the Goodwill, so the early report was different from what the chief gave me, so I just give the information I get as I go along.”

Two things.  The Attorney General is a complete dick who is under investigation for multiple crimes, and don’t give me this bullshit that his wasn’t a terrorist attack just because he’s white.  If he was black, brown, yellow, or even had a deep tan or if the targets were white, the media, right wing, and religious zealots would be up in arms about how this monster was indoctrinated from an early age in a religion of hate, and he targeted his victims based off of racists policies.

Instead, they’ll try to ignore what this is.  Extremist, right wing religious and racist domestic terrorism.

STORMYWATCH, FROM THE STORMCENTER 6000 METEOROPORNOLOGICAL CENTER

• Trump’s attorneys expected to appeal decision in defamation case
• Former Playboy model to Melania: I’m sorry
• Karen McDougal opens up about alleged affair with Trump on CNN US news
• YouTube: Stormy’s Lawyer and Cohen’s Lawyer on CNN

“You know the last time an attorney pointed at me like this and made threats to me like this, I tagged him for $454 million dollars”

Karen McDougal interviewed Anderson Cooper on CNN, and told the details of her affair with Donald Trump, including him trying to pay her and a trip to Melania’s bedroom.

That’s pretty fucked up.

TRUMP ORG AND CORRUPTION, FROM THE WATER IS WET DEPARTMENT

• Jared Kushner may be selling out American allies—and sending dissidents to their deaths
• Saudi and Emirati Princes Feud Over Who Has More Control of Jared Kushner
• NYC agency investigating more than a dozen Kushner buildings.

The AP reported Sunday that Kushner Cos. stated in more than 80 of permit applications that it had zero rent-regulated tenants in its buildings when it, in fact, had hundreds.

…

The Kushner Cos. said Wednesday that it is the victim of “politically motivated attacks.” It said it values and respects its tenants and operates under “the highest legal and ethical standards.”

In earlier statements the company said it outsourced preparation of its permit applications to third parties, and described the wrong information as “mistakes or typographical errors.” It also said it corrected mistakes as soon as it spotted them.

The buildings department confirmed on Wednesday that its building marshal’s office had launched investigations into possible false paperwork.

A typographical error?  That’s their excuse?  A typo…on multiple sets of paperwork…for more than 80 rental properties…totaling hundreds of apartments and condos?

That snapping sound is my credulity breaking.

COLD WAR 2.0

• Russia Overtakes Saudi Arabia and Tunisia as Largest Exporter of ISIS Fighters
• Kaspersky’s ‘Slingshot’ report burned an ISIS-focused intelligence operation – CyberScoop
• Ex-CIA official says there’s a 98 percent chance Russia has dirt on Trump: Putin ‘can wipe him out’
• Bitcoin could become illegal almost everywhere, after shocking discovery in the blockchain
• U.S. says Russian support for Taliban hurts peace process in Afghanistan – CBS News

So, we have Russia supporting the Taliban, ISIS, laundering money through BitCoin, and using their “Security Company” to tell the world about the USIC’s spying on ISIS.

Putin’s Russia is the enemy of freedom and democracy around the world.

CAN WE GET BACK TO POLITICS?

• Zinke brought security team to vacation in Turkey and Greece, records show
• The Washington Post: Dow dives on fears of global trade war over Trump tariffs
• Asia’s Response After Trump Announces Tariffs Against China – Bloomberg Business
• China threatens to raise tariffs on about $3 billion of U.S. imports if two sides fail to resolve trade dispute

As I said before on Daily Check-In 03/02/2018, tariffs are a bad idea.  No one wins a trade war, except those not involved.

Like Russia.  Their only exports are fossil fuels and sadness, and neither of those were tariffed.

MEDIA MATTERS

• CNN Chief: Fox News Harms America, Is Worse Than Russian Propaganda 
• The Breitbartization of Fox News

We’re fast approaching the next phase of the shitstorm, and Fox News’s role in attacking our Democracy will not go unnoticed nor unpunished.

RUMOR MILL: WHAT’S NEXT?

Twitter is all atwitter that shit’s ’bout to get real, yo.

All of the insiders are are talking about imminent indictments.  Nobody was sure when, until the following press conference announcement.

Gee, a major Cyber Law Enforcement announcement, involving the Deputy Attorney General, the head of FinCEN, the US Attorney for SDNY, and the new Deputy Director of the FBI.  And, it comes on the heels of the Guccifer 2.0 GRU story, Cambridge Analytica, and after multiple times that Roger Stone’s friends have been in the news.

Countercheckist, TeaPain, PatriotLou, Louise, the Alt’s, ALL OF THEM are talking about indictments in the morning.

That’s it for today.  Friday is likely going to be crazy.  Historic crazy.  Be ready for anything.  This weekend has likely indictments against Russian hackers and American coconspirators, Stormy Daniels’s interview on 60 Minutes, the March for our Lives, and persistent rumors of Trump trying to fire Mueller.  That last part will be made politically impossible after indictments drop.

The plan is to write an article about gun control.  To say that gun control is a touchy subject for some people is an understatement.  I’ve had more peaceful arguments drunk off my ass arguing with priests about how their gods were figment of their imaginations. (Yes, I’m a bit of a dick.).

There is no simple answer for gun control.  If there were, we would have done it by now.

Tomorrow is probably going to be fast and furious.  Like I said before, if we’re getting indictments in the morning, then they’ll most likely be for a bunch of hackers, both Russian and American, but Roger Stone is likely to be the biggest name involved.  I don’t think Mueller’s going to make a move against the Trump family yet.  That won’t happen until everything is ready to wrap up, and when he does go for the family, it will be endgame.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Wednesday March 21st.  First day of Spring.

CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA AND FACEBOOK

• Facebook, Cambridge Analytica sued in U.S. by users over data harvesting
• The power players behind Cambridge Analytica have set up a mysterious new data company
• The Cambridge Analytica bridge is burning, and they’re shuffling over to Emerdata. Same crew, same owners, same staff, same practices, different name.

  Rebekha Mercer and her daughter became directors of Emerdata on March 16th, the same day that Facebook suspended Cambridge Analytica and this shitstorm began.

  Emerdata Ltd created by SCL/Cambridge Analytica’s Julian Wheatland, with Erik Prince’s business partner Chun Shun Ko appointed director Jan ’17 [sic 2018] – just added Rebekah Mercer & Jennifer Mercer as directors, along w/ Alexander Nix

  Remember, Kellyanne Conway worked for Cambridge Analytica back in 2016, and advised and advocated for Ted Cruz during the Republican Primary.

• Trump accidentally touts key role of Cambridge Analytica in 2016 campaign
• Cambridge Analytica’s parent company reportedly offered a $1.4 million bribe to win an election for a client
• Bannon oversaw Cambridge Analytica’s collection of Facebook data, ex-worker says

  The 2014 effort was part of a high-tech form of voter persuasion touted by the company, which under Bannon identified and tested the power of anti-establishment messages that later would emerge as central themes in President Trump’s campaign speeches, according to Chris Wylie, who left the company at the end of that year.

  Among the messages tested were “drain the swamp” and “deep state,” he said.

  …

  We had to get Bannon to approve everything at this point. Bannon was Alexander Nix’s boss,” said Wylie, who was Cambridge Analytica’s research director. “Alexander Nix didn’t have the authority to spend that much money without approval.

  …

  Wylie said that both Bannon and Rebekah Mercer, whose father, Robert Mercer, financed the company, participated in conference calls in 2014 in which plans to collect Facebook data were discussed, although Wylie acknowledged that it was not clear they knew the details of how the collection took place.

• Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg are quietly freaking out and pulling late nights behind the scenes
  

  They talked about topics like how to fix Facebook’s internal systems, whether Zuckerberg should testify in front of Congress or Parliament, the possibility of a lawsuit against Cambridge Analytica, and most intriguingly, what to do about a former Cambridge Analytica founding employee who now works for Facebook.

• No, Obama Didn’t Employ the Same Strategies as Cambridge Analytica
• Cambridge Analytica Looked to Pounce on Russian Hacks, Email Shows
• Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix called black clients ‘n*ggers’ in leaked email
• The Washington Post: Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, in first response to Cambridge Analytica revelations, says company will audit thousands of apps
• Trump campaign firm CEO offered WikiLeaks help with Clinton emails
• Facebook Sued by Investors Over Voter-Profile Harvesting
• Silicon Valley Has Failed to Protect Our Data. Here’s How to Fix It
• Facebook data from Cambridge Analytica helped Republicans win keys seats in Colorado. And it cost them big bucks.
• Schiff: Cambridge Analytica CEO’s mocking description of GOP ‘all too accurate’
• Zuckerberg saved tens of millions of dollars by selling Facebook stock ahead of Mondays decline – MarketWatch

So, Cambridge Analytica is under so much scrutiny, the Mercer’s are trying to move everything over to a new company called Emerdata, but in the process they were caught, and their ties to Erik Prince have come forward.

This is big.

One major part of a conspiracy is getting everyone together for a common purpose.  Who’s involved, and how do they know each other?  How do they communicate?

Years ago, in an argument with someone who turned out to be a Russian Troll (I didn’t know it at the time, but is was during the ClimateGate scandal).  I posited what I call the Lunch Theorem of Conspiracies to debunk their claims of a global conspiracy of climatologists trying to rig data to cripple the oil industry.  It goes like this…

If the members of the conspiracy have not met for lunch at some point, there is not a conspiracy.

Lunch is one of the most basic tasks of existence, yet coordinating groups of people to eat together is a pain in the ass.  Something always goes wrong where one party has something that comes up, or someone doesn’t want to eat with someone else in the group, or just as everyone agrees to ribs, the vegan shows up.

A conspiracy to steal the Presidency is much more advanced than getting lunch, and one thing that’s always racked my brain was how do all of these people and parts fit together.  When did they have lunch?  Who hosted lunch?

Seeing that CA worked with parties connected to Erik Prince makes things like the Alfa Bank Server described in Daily Check-In 02/20/2018 fall into place.

MUELLER AND RUSSIA

• Special Counsel studies Trump campaign ties to Cambridge Analytica, sources say
• Fired FBI official authorized criminal probe of Sessions, sources say: EXCLUSIVE
• Judge tosses defamation lawsuit brought by Carter Page
• Trump Criticizes Mueller, Again, as a Former C.I.A. Director Suggests Russia ‘May Have Something’ on the President
• NY Judge Rejects Carter Page’s Defamation Lawsuit
• Senators Warn About Russian Election Meddling and Call for Paper Ballots
• Adam Schiff: Russia probe impossible thanks to GOP in Intel Committee

Mueller has been looking into Trump’s ties to CA for a while, but this story coming out now shows that he’s far ahead of the game.

Active FBI Director Andrew McCabe had investigated Attorney General Jeff Sessions for possible perjury charges and his connections to Russia.  Let me repeat that.

THE FBI DIRECTOR WAS FIRED BY THE ATTORNEY GENERAL TWO DAYS BEFORE RETIREMENT AFTER INVESTIGATING THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR POSSIBLE FELONIES.

AUSTIN

• Austin bombing suspect dies after blowing himself up, police say
• Bombing suspect Mark A. Conditt wrote political views in blog
• Austin bomber “viewed himself as conservative.” Wrote on his blog “Homosexuality is not natural” and “equated contraception to abortion.”
• The Washington Post: Austin bombing suspect dies after detonating explosive in his vehicle, police say

I mentioned yesterday in Daily Check-In 03/20/2018 about how fast the bomber could be found with the data available from a logistics company.

The terrorist was a home-schooled religious extremists who likely was radicalized further online.  The only thing missing at this point is a red cap.

#NEVERAGAIN

• The Right-Wing Attacks on Parkland Survivors Are Totally Unhinged
• More people view NRA negatively than positively for the first time since before 2000
• GOP Rep’s Office Got A Student Suspended For Cursing While Asking For Gun Control
• Man Who Wrote Viral Facebook Post on Gun Control Harassed, Daughter Threatened With Rape

The March For Our Lives is this Saturday.  Find a location near you.

STORMYWATCH, FROM THE STORMCENTER 6000 METEOROPORNOLOGICAL CENTER

• Judge denies Trump bid to get sexual accuser Summer Zervos’ defamation suit tossed: ‘No one is above the law’
• Stormy Daniels’ lawyer: 6 more women claim sexual relationships with Trump
• Stormy Daniels’ friend: She fears for her life – CNN Video

I’ve decided to include all of the sex-related issues and lawsuits under Stormywatch.

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

• Kelly furious over leak of warning to Trump to not congratulate Putin
• Scott Pruitt Went To Italy, And It Only Cost Taxpayers $120,000
• Grassley on Trump calling Putin: ‘I wouldn’t have a conversation with a criminal’
• Trump doesn’t bother to hide his submissiveness to Putin anymore
• New travel costs revealed for EPA head amid ongoing scrutiny
• Trump furious over leak of warning to not congratulate Putin

Sometimes I wonder how much doesn’t get out.  Other times, I wonder how much they have to drink to make their jobs tolerable.  20 years from now there will be a spike in failing livers from the D.C. area that need replaced.

CONSERVATIVES, NOT NATIONALISTS; OR, HOW NOT TO GOVERN

• Republicans Start Talking Impeachment
• Arnold Schwarzenegger calls for centrist reshaping of GOP
• Millennial women leaving the Republican Party in droves: Pew
• 20,000 Republicans just voted for an actual Nazi
• Senator Bob Corker admits what we’ve known all along: For Republicans, it’s Party over country
• Breitbart’s readership plunges

“A big part of Breitbart’s success was that there was a niche to be filled that Fox News was not able to fill at that point,” said Faris, who co-authored a study on the conservative media ecosystem during the election. But now, with Fox‘s primetime hosts having fully embraced the president, he says, “The role, the importance of Breitbart is diminished.”

• Devin Nunes Probed by FEC for Possible Campaign-Finance Violations
• A new study finds more women now lean Democratic
• Pennsylvania Republican wants to impeach 5 state Supreme Court justices over gerrymandering fight

Gee, who would have thought that more women are leaving the Party that attacks a woman’s right to safe medical care, reproductive choice, belittles their opinions and endorsed a misogynist and rapist as President.

TRUMP ORG AND CORRUPTION, FROM THE WATER IS WET DEPARTMENT

• Republican National Committee spent $271K at Trump’s businesses last month: report
• Donald Trump Jr. Had an Affair With Aubrey O’Day During Vanessa Marriage 
• Donald Trump Jr. Pushed ‘Blatantly Illegal’ Project In India, Former Official Says — ‘Trump, Inc.’ Podcast
  

  The Trumps’ first India project, in Mumbai, was halted in early 2012 after investigators found significant “irregularities.” The investigators had been tipped off by a state lawmaker who suspected a $100 million fraud scheme and warned of “gross violations” in the project’s plans. Authorities revoked the building’s permits. A few months later, in April 2012, Trump Jr. traveled to Mumbai and, along with partners, met with a top official there to try to get the project restarted. Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan declined.

  The Trumps were back in India in 2014, after a new government came into power, Narendra Modi’s BJP. The Trump Tower Mumbai — a gold-hued skyscraper that the Trump Organization bills as “unlike anything you have ever seen”—is now slated to finished next year. It is one of five Trump-affiliated projects currently under development in India.

   

• Kushner’s N.J. Trump Tower Got $200 Million Loan From Citigroup
  

  Trump Bay Street, a New Jersey luxury apartment tower part-owned by Kushner Cos., received a $200 million loan from Citigroup, according to two people familiar with the deal.

  It’s a coup for Kushner Cos. and their partner KABR Group, which need the funds to repay a construction loan that came due in September, as well as individual Chinese investors who put $50 million in the building through a visa-for-investment program. The companies had trouble finding lenders last year after Jared Kushner’s sister traveled to China, Bloomberg reported at the time.

• Summons Issued For Trump In Emoluments Case
  

  A lawsuit filed by D.C. and Maryland against President Trump over his alleged business conflicts has been expanded to include Trump in his personal capacity as a businessman, which means that a summons has been sent to perhaps the most famous address in Washington: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

What I really like about this lawsuit is that it comes from two Local AG’s suing on behalf of hotels in their jurisdictions that are losing business to Trump Org.

CAN WE GET BACK TO POLITICS?

• China to Target Trump’s Base in Tariff Response
• USCIS suspends fast processing for some H-1B visas – Axios
• Saccone concedes 18th district race in phone call to Lamb
• Lawmakers in Kosovo release tear gas in parliament to prevent vote | TheHill
• The Washington Post: Fed raises interest rates to highest level in a decade, raising costs for borrowers and easing off efforts to stimulate the economy

RUMOR MILL:  NADER GETS IMMUNITY AND FACEBOOK RAGE

Dr. Dena has a very good, in-depth, and emoji-filled thread about George Nader, Elliot Broidy, and who Nader can deliver.

The knives are out for Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and his cronies.  Each and every shitty thing he’s done, said, place he’s been to or shitty person he’s hung out with is coming to the surface.

Two of the themes going around are Zuckerberg’s money ties to Russia, which I’ve covered before, and his Presidential ambitions.

During 2017, there was a lot of talk about how he was angling for a possible Presidential campaign in either 2020 or 2024.  He was traveling around the country, hanging out with politicos, and had claimed that he “found God”.

I was always suspicious of that move myself.  Zuckerberg was an outspoken atheist for years.  Being an atheist in America is becoming a little more accepted, but they’re still one of the least trusted groups in the country.  Saying that one doesn’t believe in a diety is political suicide in America.  Meanwhile, proclaiming one’s faith is almost a prerequisite for drawing voters.  It’s not enough to quietly believe, but one has to be loud and obnoxious about it.

So, when Zuckerberg said that he “found God,” my first thought was “Fuck, is that obnoxious shit going to run for office?”  Then, he went on a tour of the Midwest states like Iowa and Kansas.  That confirmed it for me.

Now, he’s in a world of shit, and I hope it gets worse.  Facebook’s business model is selling data.  We’re not users of Facebook, we’re the commodity.

That’s it for today.  I’m running behind today, and a little tired.  I’ve been playing with a different format the last few days, mainly because I’m grabbing a lot of news articles about groups of subjects.  One thing that bothers me with modern reporting is the mini-story.  500 words about one sound byte from another report, then another 500 words about another sound byte, then another article, and so on and so on.  I’m over 2200 words right now, but I’m also long-winded.  I’ll see how this format works for another day or so.  I’ll keep it if I like it.  If not, I’ll use it when needed.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Tuesday March 20th.

CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA

• Ted Cruz under fire for ties to Cambridge Analytica
• Cambridge Analytica whistleblower to testify to House Democrats on Facebook data operation
• ‘Utterly horrifying’: ex-Facebook insider says covert data harvesting was routine
• FTC opens probe into Facebook after firm scrapes millions of users’ personal data
• Facebook’s auditors visited Cambridge Analytica’s offices but were told to stand down by UK authorities
• As Facebook Ire Grows, Senator Says Zuckerberg ‘Ought to Be Subpoenaed’
• Cruz says Cambridge Analytica assured him its practices were legal
• MPs summon Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg to give evidence on ‘catastrophic failures’ of Cambridge Analytica data breach
• Wylie: We Were Testing Trump Slogans in 2014
• Spicy Mic: Facebook vs. UK Parliament
• Spicy Mic: 2013-2014 Federal Election Commission Filings That Include Cambridge Analytica
• Cambridge Analytica had Contract with State Department
• Senator Thom Tillis Runs From Committee, Press to Avoid Questions about Ties to Cambridge Analytica
• Zuckerberg asked to testify in UK; data firm’s CEO suspended
• Cambridge Analytica: We ran all of Trump’s digital campaign
• Cambridge Analytica Bosses: We Secretly Made Ads for Trump and We’ll Never Be Caught
• Here’s a Photo of Cambridge Analytica’s CEO With the Russian Ambassador to the UK
• Zuckerberg has sold more Facebook stock in the last 3 months than any insider at any other company
• Exposed: Undercover secrets of Trump’s data firm
• Mark Zuckerberg Met With Kremlin’s Number 2 Man

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg ghosted recently, and spent the last couple months selling off stock.  The U.S. and U.K. want him to appear before their governments to answer questions.  And I’ve talked before about his taking Russian money, and screwing over Ukraine.

Massachusettes, New Jersey, New York, U.K., and U.S. governments are investigating CA.  Probably a dozen more states will join in by the end of the week.

Ted Cruz and Thom Tillis used CA to win their most recent elections.

Spicy has the paperwork to show they took their services.

The Mercer family gave CA a ton of money to push their right-wing agenda, and to attack democracy around the world.

Remember when I talked about Steve Bannon flipping on the Mercer family and CA to avoid the death penalty? (Check Daily Check-In 01/05/2018 in the Rumor Mill for that one.). Hearing these accusations about CA’s work come from the Mainstream Media, and the near complete absence of Steve Bannon adds a little credence to those rumors.  Of course, Daily Check-In 02/15/2018 had Bannon interviewing with Mueller for 20 hours to further keep Bannon from getting charged with capital crimes.

Yes, I’m talking about the death penalty.  This is just the beginning.

HOLY FUCK, MARK WARNER JUST IMPLICATED THE RUSSIANS IN BREXIT!  I’ve mentioned more than a few times before that the Russians were involved in Brexit, and that Cambridge Analytica played a major role in it.

MUELLER AND TRUMP-RUSSIA

• Republicans dismiss legislation to protect special counsel
• Yes, This Is Going to Be Worse Than Watergate
• Trump spoke with Russia’s Putin on Tuesday: NBC News 
• Trump congratulates Putin on election, discusses meeting, Kremlin says
• Russian Roulette review: as Joe Biden said, ‘If this is true, it’s treason’
•  McConnell Remains Silent Over Trump’s Attacks on Mueller
• Rachel Maddow to Interview James Comey on April 19
• An “Ashamed” Fox News Commentator Just Quit The “Propaganda Machine”
• Former French president Sarkozy detained over allegations of bribery by Libya
• In congratulatory call to Putin, Trump ignored advisers’ prominent warning 

The leader of the Free World does not congratulate a dictator on winning a rigged, sham election.

Fox News Commentator Ralph Peters, a retired Lt. Colonel, quit the company after a decade on the air.

“Fox News is assaulting our constitutional order and the rule of law… Fox has degenerated…to a mere propaganda machine for a destructive and ethically ruinous administration”

I first mentioned on Daily Check-In 9/21/2017 some rumors that Fox News was under investigation for pushing Russian propaganda, per Louise Mensch at Patribotics.  Since then, I’ve seen several stories leaning that way, including the Seth Rich lawsuits and Fox News’s constant disinformation.

As far as Mueller, the Republican leadership in Congress says that they don’t need legislation to protect Mueller because “Trump gave them assurances that he won’t try to fire Mueller.”  MOTHER FUCKER, HE DONE TRIED TWICE ALREADY.

But, this does answer a question I had about Paul Ryan.  How full of shit does a spineless person have to be to sit up?  ANSWER:  This much.

TRUMP’S LEGAL TEAM

• Trump has openly discussed firing lawyer Ty Cobb: report
• Trump Might Remove Dowd from Legal Team
• High-profile conservative lawyer Theodore B. Olson declines offer to join Trump legal team
• EWS ‘Legal superstar’ turns down offer to defend Trump in Russia probe

Ted Olson has been approached multiple times in the last year, and once again gave Trump the “Thanks, but no thanks” treatment.

Here’s the problem with Trump and lawyers; he’s incapable of taking their advice.  Trump views anyone taking his money as an inferior, not an expert brought in to perform a special skill.  He can’t take their advice or counsel.  Instead, he sees their job as to listen to him, follow his orders, and make his will reality.

Plus, he doesn’t pay his bills.  There’s a lot of crap that a lawyer will put up with, but unpaid bills are not on that list.

Given all of that, any surprise why the best lawyers are avoiding him like the plague?

STORMYWATCH, FROM THE STORMCENTER 6000 METEOROPORNOLIGICAL CENTER

• NYT: Former Playboy model who alleges affair with Trump sues company that didn’t publish her story
• Ex-Playboy Model Sues National Enquirer Owner to Break Silence on Alleged Trump Affair
• Lie detector test shows Stormy Daniels truthful about Trump affair
• Trump Can’t Dodge Lawsuit Saying He Lied About Groping, Judge Says
• Cohen Says He’s Never Threatened Stormy Daniels
• Playboy model sues to speak about alleged affair with Trump
• Defamation case against Trump to move forward
• Judge allows ‘Apprentice’ contestant’s defamation suit against Trump to proceed
• Wall Street Journal publishes polygraph results backing Stormy Daniels

Stormy passed a polygraph, Karen McDougal’s suing National Enquirer, and Summer Zervos’s lawsuit is going forward.  Oh, and Trump’s Lawyer that needs his own Lawyer can’t keep his mouth shut.

I have to ask a question.  At first, it was going to be a joke, but the more I think about it, I think this might be a question that gets an actual answer.

How many women are needed to achieve class action status?

AUSTIN

• Packages believed bound for Austin explodes at Texas FedEx Facility
• 2nd unexploded device found in Texas FedEx facility, authorities say
• FedEx Press Release about Incidents in Texas
• Police backtrack, say no second unexploded device found at FedEx where package detonated
• New reported package explosion in Austin injures 1, officials say

Earlier today, a bomb detonated in the San Antonio FedEx facility.  Two people suffered minor injuries.  It was determined that the package that detonated was shipped from and destined for Austin, TX, about 80 miles away.  Upon further investigation, another device was found in a station in Southern Area of Austin, near the Airport.  According to law enforcement, both packages were shipped at the same time from the other side of the city, by the same person.  This information helped law enforcement get surveillance footage of a person of interest.

So, how did San Antonio get involved with this if the package was being shipped from one side of Austin to the other?

Logistics companies like FedEx, UPS, US Postal Service and Amazon operate on a hub-spoke model, like airports.  There might not be enough volume to justify a flight from Seattle, WA to Columbus, OH, but there’s more than enough for a Seattle to Chicago and Chicago to Columbus.  This is how we end up with layovers, because it’s cheaper and faster for the airline to move people to a hub and reroute from there than it is to schedule special flights every day from A to B.

That’s how a package going from one side of Austin to the other made a 160 mile (260 km) round trip.  There isn’t enough guaranteed volume across town to justify the trip, but there are guaranteed trips every day to and from San Antonio.

Also, I hope no one reading this ever gets the urge to make bombs and ship them, but don’t use a major shipper like FedEx, UPS, Amazon, or USPS to deliver the bombs.  These companies track EVERYTHING.  They have to keep track of millions of packages per day.  They know who paid for it, who handled it, who loaded it on the truck, who drove the truck, who delivered it, who signed for it, who requested a tracking update on it, and who left special delivery instructions like ‘leave under doormat.”

Hopefully, this will lead to catching the person right away, before anyone else gets hurt.

#NEVERAGAIN

• Two students injured, gunman dead in Md. high school shooting
• New NRA attack ad targets Parkland survivors and the March For Our Lives
• Girl critically hurt in HS shooting may have had relationship with suspected gunman, police say
• School Shooting in Great Mills, Maryland

Another kid is dead today.  Two more are in the hospital, and the “Enthusiasts” are going hurt themselves patting themselves on the back because the kid was killed by a security guard/cop in the school, and that the kids was too young to buy the gun used, so gun laws wouldn’t help.

Gimme a fucking break.

Most likely, it was daddy’s gun.  Did dad have his gun locked in a safe?  Did he have the ammo stored away?

And what would happen if that guard missed?  Bullets fly until they hit something, whether it’s the target, the wall behind it, or a kid behind the wall.

COLD WAR 2.0

• Russian diplomats expelled from UK head back to Moscow
• Russia Secretly Helped Venezuela Launch a Cryptocurrency to Evade U.S. Sanctions

HOLY FUCK, MARK WARNER JUST IMPLICATED THE RUSSIANS IN BREXIT!  I can’t stress enough how fucking big this is.

CWGBTP (Can we get back to politics?)

• As DeVos Faces Congress, Officials Say She Hid Plans to Overhaul Department
• Ben Carson Blames Purchase of $31,000 Office Dining Set on His Wife
• Why Democrats Should Embrace a Federal Jobs Guarantee
• Conor Lamb got my first donation to a Democrat in 50 years. It’s time to stop Donald Trump.
• ‘The job is not done’: Puerto Rico’s needs go unmet 6 months after Maria

One thing I’m semi-thankful for is the blatant incompetence of the people in charge during this attempted slide into Authoritarianism.  If they were good at their jobs or solving problems, who knows where we’d be now?

RUMOR MILL:  AUSSIES ARE ON IT

This one comes from Louise Mensch and Pete Evans (@911CORLEBRA777).

Australian parties deny using data firm Cambridge Analytica 

On the surface, this seems pretty innocuous. Senior members of Cambridge Analytica came to Australia and met with senior officials of the two largest parties, but nothing happened.  Both parties got the pitch, but decided not to pursue CA for the next election.

Seems simple, right?  Well, not so much.

According to this tweet thread, this was part of an Intelligence Operation executed by Australian Secret Intelligence, ASI.  Both political parties went into the meetings with CA, and recorded the whole thing.

That’s right.  They pulled in politicians to work an op, and recorded everything.

I’m still skeptical about rumors like these, but Peter’s been on point for a lot of stories.

Remember, Australia is part of Five Eyes, the Intelligence sharing group that consists of the Aussies, the Kiwis, the Brits, the Yanks, and the Canucks.  Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States, and Canada.  What we see, they see, and vice versa.

That’s it for today.  My next non-daily article will be about gun control.  Specifically, some ideas and thoughts I’ve had for a while, as well as some criticisms about the plan.  Gun control is a touchy subject for a lot of people, and there’s been a couple generations of marketing and propaganda to make people think that nothing can be done.  I’ve got a few ideas, and I’ll write them up this week.  I hope.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur