Daily Check-In 02/27/2018

Tuesday February 27th, and it’s been a busy day.

SEVEN STATES COMPROMISED BY RUSSIA

The U.S. Intelligence Community has confirmed the Russians compromised, or got into, the voter registration websites and/or voter rolls of the following states:

  • Alaska
  • Arizona
  • California
  • Florida
  • Illinois
  • Texas
  • Wisconsin

Once again, compromised means that the IC has proof that the Russians got into the systems.  They won’t say that they have that any information was changed, but I’ve covered in Voter Rolls – The Easy Target what and how they could have made changes without getting caught.

 

KUSHNER LOSES TOP SECRET ACCESS

Jared Kushner, White House Senior Advisor and son-in-law of Donald Trump, has lost his Top Secret Intelligence Access.  This means that he can no longer have access to the Presidential Daily Briefing, nor be involved in high level tasks that require that access.

 

KUSHNER FAMILY ATTEMPTS TO BUY OUT PARTNERS FOR 666 FIFTH AVENUE

This part was pretty interesting…

Kushner Cos. had sought financing from a Chinese insurer with ties to the ruling Communist Party early last year, drawing criticism from government ethics experts and Democrats in Congress who worried the Chinese could use any deal as leverage with the Trump administration. The Kushner Cos. also sought money from a South Korean government fund, a French billionaire and a Saudi investor.

Kushner has a $1.2 Billion debt that comes due next January.  How in the Crystal Pepsi Flavored Fuck would they get the money?

 

KUSHNER FOREIGN CONTACTS RAISE CONCERNS

Particularly Manipulable.  That’s how Jared Kushner is described.  He’s in debt up to his ears, is not qualified to meet with foreign diplomats, and has been caught describing his personal business with representatives from Mexico, China, United Arab Emirates, and Israel, among others.

H.R. McMaster, President Trump’s national security adviser, learned that Kushner had contacts with foreign officials that he did not coordinate through the National Security Council or officially report. The issue of foreign officials talking about their meetings with Kushner and their perceptions of his vulnerabilities was a subject raised in McMaster’s daily intelligence briefings, according to the current and former officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

Officials in the White House were concerned that Kushner was “naive and being tricked” in conversations with foreign officials, some of whom said they wanted to deal only with Kushner directly and not more experienced personnel, said one former White House official.

Jared Kushner is being accused of using his official position for personal gain in an effort to relieve his family’s debt.  In doing so, he’s selling America’s interests down the river.

 

THE PROFESSOR AND RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER LAVROV ARE FRIENDS, PER BABY MOMMA

Remember Joseph Misfud, the professor that took an interest in George Papadopoulos after learning about his ties to Trump?  After George’s plea deal, the Professor disappeared.

He’s disappeared so well even his baby momma doesn’t know where he’s at, and she wants to know.

She provided a journalist with screenshots of WhatsApp conversations where he claimed to have dinner with his friend Sergei Lavrov.  You know, the Russian Foreign Minister.

She also showed a message saying that he talked with the FBI.

It’s been a couple months since she’s heard from him.  At this point, Misfud is either on the run, in protective custody, or dead.

 

NO HOPE OF HICKS ANSWERING QUESTIONS FOR HOUSE INTEL COMMITTEE

Okay, that’s a bad pun.  As I expected, she refused to answer questions, and the Republicans on the Committee won’t do a damn thing about it.

But don’t worry, she did talk to Mueller…

Angry Hope Mueller

So, here’s hoping that works out…

 

NSA DIRECTOR HAS NOT RECEIVED ORDERS FROM TRUMP OR SECDEF TO DEFEND AGAINST RUSSIAN CYBERATTACKS

Neither President Trump nor Secretary of Defense Mattis has ordered the NSA to enact the protocols set forth to protect the United States from another attack from Russia.  Mattis cannot unilaterally act without orders from Trump.

 

NRA’S NON-DENIAL DENIAL RESPONSE TO SENATOR WYDEN’S LETTER

Back in Daily Check-In 02/02/2018 I mentioned that Senator Wyden sent a letter to the NRA asking for financial documents relating to Russia.  They responded today by attacking Wyden for going after the Second Amendment and some of their other talking points.

They didn’t deny that Russia gives the NRA money, and they didn’t deny that they don’t have to disclose where the money they donate comes from.

 

TRUMP PANAMA HOTEL STANDOFF

This one’s a bit weird.  The Trump Panama Hotel is a money laundering front that now sits mostly empty because of all of the scrutiny now being shone on it.

The majority owners want Trump’s team out, and they’re asking the Panamanian government for help.

Trump’s team locked themselves in an office and the server room.  Yesterday, they spent the whole day shredding documents. Today, the security guard was arrested and removed from the building.

 

INFOWARS ONE STRIKE AWAY FROM PERMANENT YOUTUBE BAN

Fuck Alex Jones, he deserves every horrible thing that can come his way.

After releasing a video where InfoWars attacked the Parkland students, YouTube blocked their account for two weeks, and sent them a little warning.

IW YouTube Warning

This is their second strike, and they’re blocked for the next two weeks.  If they get another one in the next three months, no more InfoWars on YouTube.

Please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please, earn that third strike mother fucker.

 

TRUMP NAMES BRAD PARSCALE 2020 CAMPAIGN MANAGER

Brad Parscale, of Cambridge Analytica and Trump’s digital guru through the 2016 election was named the reelection campaign manager.

Brad has already been interviewed by Mueller, and Cambridge Analytica is knee deep in Russian shit.

I wonder how long until he’s tied to some more shady ass shit.

 

PARSCALE CONNECTED TO COMPANY INVOLVED IN PENNY STOCK FRAUD SCHEME

Oh, for fucks sake, that was like twelve minutes.

Parscale sold his marketing company to a firm that is involved in felony stock fraud crimes.  They’re a penny stock company that pumped their stock values for a quick buck.

Penny stocks are low value stocks worth less than a dollar that are usually very volatile.  They are very easy to manipulate for a quick pump and dump.  Buy 100,000 shares at $0.01 for $1,000 then create a demand to get the value to $0.10, $0.50, or even $1.00 per share, then sell at its peak and walk away with $100,000.

Check out the movie Boiler Room.  This was the main scheme they used to generate money.

 

MUELLER DROPS CHARGES AGAINST GATES

Robert Mueller recommended that 20 plus charges that he filed against Rick Gates be dropped due to his cooperation.  They’re also letting Rick go on spring break to Boston.

Hot damn.  Mueller would only do this if he liked what Rick gave him.

By the way, Rick worked with Brad Parscale on the America First policy company.

 

WISCONSIN GOVERNOR SCOTT WILSON SUED FOR NOT HOLDING SPECIAL ELECTIONS

Democrats sued Scott Wilson for not holding special elections to fill empty seats in the state legislature for fear of losing seats to Democrats.

 

OBAMA CALLS OUT GOOGLE, FACEBOOK

Obama said they “have to have a conversation about their business model that recognises they are a public good as well as a commercial enterprise.”

Yes, yes we do need to have that conversation.  We should be having conversations about regulating Social Media, and to what scope.  Personally, I’m in favor of verifying identities to these companies, but allowing anonymity amongst the users.  I’m okay with arguing online with someone named BigDickNickFoles, as long as I know that BigDickNickFoles is a real human.

 

MELANIA SEVERS TIES WITH ADVISER CAUGHT UP IN INAUGURATION SCANDAL

This was in response to the news that came out about her friend and adviser making $26 million for very little work.  The explanation makes sense, but I’m not buying the “Melania is innocent” routine.

 

CONGRESSIONAL REPUBLICANS DEMAND SCOTT PRUITT’S TRAVEL INFORMATION

Pruitt’s expenses have been under scrutiny, now it’s under investigation.  The only original cabinet members who haven’t had scandals are SecDef James Mattis, Agriculture Sonny Purdue, HHS Secretary Alex Azar (he’s new, replacing Tom Price who resigned for abusing travel expenses) and HUD Secretary Ben Carson.

 

BEN CARSON AND THE $31,000 DINING ROOM TABLE

Yep.  I wondered when that was going to happen.

Ben’s wife ordered a dining room table for $31,000, and looked for a way for it to be ordered without requiring approval.  This came on the heels of budget cuts in the Housing and Urban Development.

 

CAN TRUMP BE INDICTED AS PRESIDENT?

Short answer:  We don’t know, but likely yes.

 

ROGER STONE TEXTS AND DM’S TO WIKILEAKS CONTRADICT PUBLIC STATES, LIKELY TESTIMONY AS WELL

Soon, it’ll be Roger’s time in the barrel.

 

CARTER PAGE SPY DETAILS BURIED IN THE FOOTNOTES

One of the footnotes talks about a case where the FBI flat out called Carter Page a spy.

 

NASTYA RYBKA ARRESTED IN THAILAND, OFFERS INFORMATION ON DERIPASKA AND MANAFORT FOR HER RELEASE

Nastya was the woman in the video that leaked from Oleg Deripaska’s boat which Alexei Nalvany posted showing a connection between Deripaska and the Russian Government, and how this was connected to the attack on America.

She’s scared and she wants to talk.

 

JEFF SESSIONS ANNOUNCES INVESTIGATION INTO NUNES MEMO CLAIMS

The Keebler Nazi announced this as the news about Jared Kushner came out.  Jeff Sessions is running interference for Trump.

 

RUMOR MILL: LONG LOST SOURCES

From Claude earlier tonight…

Claude Old Source

This would explain why Mueller’s okay with Gates going on a trip to Boston.

Remember, take the above with a grain of salt.

 

That’s it for today.  It’s been a bit crazy, and will get crazier going forward.  With Kushner under a microscope and looking like a virus, Roger Stone’s ties to Julian Assange and Russia coming to the foreground, and both of them tied to Manafort and Gates, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Roger being the next principal that gets indicted.

Maybe tomorrow will be a little less chaotic.  That being said, I’m ready to drink from the fire hose.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

Daily Check-In 02/22/2018

Thursday, February 22nd.  I’m spending most of this time talking about the first story, so the rest will get short write-ups today.

MUELLER UNSEALS 32 INDICTMENTS AGAINST MANAFORT, GATES

Jesus Fucking Christ.  A superseding indictment from Eastern District of Virginia containing 32 indictments against both Paul Manafort and Rick Gates.

According to the indictment, they laundered $75 million, committed a fuck ton of bank and mortgage fraud, and a shitload of tax evasion.

Here’s a PDF of the indictment.

It’s a pretty long list, so I’ll see you in a couple screens.

Count Charge Defendant
1 Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns (2010) (26 U.S.C. §7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2) Manafort
2 Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns (2011) (26 U.S.C. §7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2) Manafort
3 Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns (2012) (26 U.S.C. §7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2) Manafort
4 Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns (2013) (26 U.S.C. §7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2) Manafort
5 Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns (2014) (26 U.S.C. §7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2) Manafort
6 Assisting in the Preparation of False United States Individual Income (2010) (26 U.S.C. §7206 (2)) Gates
7 Assisting in the Preparation of False United States Individual Income (2011) (26 U.S.C. §7206 (2)) Gates
8 Assisting in the Preparation of False United States Individual Income (2012) (26 U.S.C. §7206 (2)) Gates
9 Assisting in the Preparation of False United States Individual Income (2013) (26 U.S.C. §7206 (2)) Gates
10 Assisting in the Preparation of False United States Individual Income (2014) (26 U.S.C. §7206 (2)) Gates
11 Failure To File Reports Of Foreign Bank And Financial Accounts (2011) (31 U.S.C. §5314 and §5322(a); 18 U.S.C. §2) Manafort
12 Failure To File Reports Of Foreign Bank And Financial Accounts (2012) (31 U.S.C. §5314 and §5322(a); 18 U.S.C. §2) Manafort
13 Failure To File Reports Of Foreign Bank And Financial Accounts (2013) (31 U.S.C. §5314 and §5322(a); 18 U.S.C. §2) Manafort
14 Failure To File Reports Of Foreign Bank And Financial Accounts (2014) (31 U.S.C. §5314 and §5322(a); 18 U.S.C. §2) Manafort
15 Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns (2010) (26 U.S.C. § 7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2) Gates
16 Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns (2011) (26 U.S.C. § 7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2) Gates
17 Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns (2012) (26 U.S.C. § 7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2) Gates
18 Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns (2013) (26 U.S.C. § 7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2) Gates
19 Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns (2014) (26 U.S.C. § 7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2) Gates
20 Subscribing to a False Amended United States Individual Income Tax Return (2013) (26 U.S.C. §7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2) Gates
21 Failure To File Reports Of Foreign Bank And Financial Accounts (2011) (31 U.S.C. §5314 and §5322(a); 18 U.S.C. § 2) Gates
22 Failure To File Reports Of Foreign Bank And Financial Accounts (2012) (31 U.S.C. §5314 and §5322(a); 18 U.S.C. § 2) Gates
23 Failure To File Reports Of Foreign Bank And Financial Accounts (2013) (31 U.S.C. §5314 and §5322(a); 18 U.S.C. § 2) Gates
24 Bank Fraud Conspiracy (Lender B/$3.4 million loan) (18 U.S.C. §1349) Manafort Gates
25 Bank Fraud (Lender B/$3.4 million loan) (18 U.S.C. §§1344, 2) Manafort Gates
26 Bank Fraud Conspiracy (Lender C/$1 million loan) (18 U.S.C. §1349) Manafort Gates
27 Bank Fraud (Lender C/$1 million loan) (18 U.S.C. §1344, 2) Manafort Gates
28 Bank Fraud Conspiracy (Lender B/$5.5 million loan) (18 U.S.C. §1349) Manafort Gates
29 Bank Fraud Conspiracy (Lender D/$9.5 million loan) (18 U.S.C. §1349) Manafort Gates
30 Bank Fraud (Lender D/$9.5 million loan) (18 U.S.C. §§1344, 2) Manafort Gates
31 Bank Fraud Conspiracy (Lender D/$6.5 million loan) (18 U.S.C. §1349) Manafort Gates
32 Bank Fraud (Lender D/$6.5 million loan) (18 U.S.C. §§1344, 2) Manafort Gates

This all started back in Ukraine.  They stole a bunch of money while Yakunovich was President, until about 2015.  From 2015 until January 2017, they allegedly played a shell game with multiple banks to try to drum up some cash to keep them running until their next scheme takes off.  They’re lying to banks, altering profit & loss sheets, lied about their stated incomes, lied about rental properties, and lied about all of this on state, local, and federal taxes.

Notice the dates, 2015 to 2017.  This overlaps their time on the Trump Campaign.

I can’t get a credit card increase for $500 without 38 references, and these pricks got millions of loans in a few months.

By the way, Lender D is likely Federal Savings Bank from Chicago, Illinois.  I talked about Stephen Calk yesterday in Daily Check-In 02/21/2018.  He gave these loans to Manafort in a Quid Pro Quo for a position in the White House, likely the Secretary of the Army.  Reportedly, him or someone in his bank is working with Mueller.

But, now the $64,000 question.  If Gates flipped, why’s he still getting indicted?

There was some confusion this afternoon about his legal representation.  Looks like Tom Green is still his attorney.  No, not the Tom Green that had a TV show back on MTV from the late 90’s who had testicular cancer, but the Tom Green who was a lawyer during Watergate.

There’s two hypotheses about this.  First, he’s not flipping on Manafort, or he doesn’t have enough new evidence.  Second, these indictments include enough criminal activity by both of them together, and they were indicted together.

Either way, this sends a message to Paul Manfort.  Deliver Donald Trump or die in prison.

 

FIRST NATIONAL BANK TO END THEIR NRA VISA CARD

The boycott of the NRA begins.

Time to add Enterprise Holdings to that list.  They own Enterprise, National, and Alamo rental car companies.

 

NRA AT CPAC CONFERENCE IS AN EMBARRASSMENT TO EVERYTHING

Wayne LaPierre went off on everything from blacks to socialism to video games, and blamed all of them for mass shootings.

You know, it’s everyone else’s fault, but his.

Fuck him.

 

TRUMP CRIES ‘FAKE NEWS’ ON CNN AND NBC SAYING HE’D ARM TEACHERS, THEN SAYS ARMING TEACHERS WOULD ‘SOLVE THE PROBLEM INSTANTLY’

The only reason I’m mentioning a Trump tweet is to illustrate his inability to keep a coherent thought for more than 30 seconds.  I’ll address the stupidity of arming teachers in the Rumor Mill section.

 

MISSIOURI GOVERNOR TAKEN INTO CUSTODY

Republican Governor of Missouri Eric Greitens was indicted and arrested on felony invasion of privacy.  He allegedly took pictures of his mistress without her permission as she was bound, gagged, and semi-naked on her bed, then threatened to blackmail her with them if she spoke out about the affair.

 

TRUMP LEGAL FUND RECIPIENTS UNCLEAR; FLYNN SAYS NO THANKS

This fund is supposed to be for people around Trump that can’t afford their own legal bills, like low-level staffers.

There was an argument making the rounds of the Fringe RWM that the Government doesn’t have a case against Flynn and he should fight it.  Flynn said “No Thanks.”

 

RUSSIAN OPPOSITION LEADER ALEXEI NAVALNY DETAINED IN MOSCOW, AGAIN

Once again, this shows how weak Putin really is.  Nalvany is protesting the sham practice known as the 2018 Russian Presidential Election.

 

PUTIN ALLY SAID TO BE IN TOUCH WITH KREMLIN, ASSAD BEFORE HIS MERCENARIES ATTACKED U.S. TROOPS

In intercepted communications in late January, the oligarch, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, told a senior Syrian official that he had “secured permission” from an unspecified Russian minister to move forward with a “fast and strong” initiative that would take place in early February.

Yevgeniy was indicted last week as the Oligarch in charge of the IRA.  His forces attacked U.S. troops in Syria, but were routed when the Americans attacked them from the air.

Yes, Russian mercenaries that report to ‘Putin’s Chef’ attacked American troops.

 

GUILTY PLEA DOESN’T PROHIBIT CONSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGE TO CONVICTIONS, SUPREME COURT RULES

This has nothing to do with Russia so far, but I thought it was an interesting ruling.

 

RUMOR MILL:  TEACHERS WITH GUNS AND MANAFORT’S CONNECTIONS

One of the stupidest things I’ve heard come from the NRA “enthusiasts” is that the solution to gun violence and mass shootings is if more “good guys” were armed.  Their thinking, if you can call it that, is that more armed people will offset and outshoot the bad people with guns.  Their recommendation to stop school shootings is to arm teachers.

Outside of a bad Hollywood movie, this is by far the dumbest, least thought out, and wildly horrible ideas since… well, I one time heard of Orange Juice and Toothpaste flavored potato chips.

Let’s talk first about the realities of gunfights.

Trained professionals who spend years perfecting the art of shooting are not very accurate in live fire situations.  The NYPD has an 18% accuracy rate.  Soldiers are about the same rate.  That means, even in a great situation, 4 out of every 5 bullets will miss its target.  In a shooting range, that miss is going to hit a wall, or a dirt mound.  In a school, that bullet is flying into a kid.

Next, let’s think about who teachers are.  They are overworked, underpaid, and stressed out.  In a lot of schools, they move from class to class, and that’s most of their exercise all day.  So, on a good day, their nerves are only slightly frayed.  Let’s throw guns into that mix, and students who know that they can beat up a teacher to steal their gun, or take it out of an unlocked drawer.

Also, who the fuck’s gonna pay for this?  We don’t pay the teachers enough as it is, and a lot of schools have problems paying for essential supplies like pencils and staplers.  Who’s gonna pay for range time and ammo?

Finally, teachers know their students.  Do you know who the most likely shooters are in a school?  Angry boy students.  Those boys are either current or former students.  This idea of arming teachers implies that they’ll have to shoot and kill people they know.  Imagine, for a moment, the kind of mindfuck that puts a person through.

Soldiers train to kill by dehumanizing their enemies.  It’s the only way they can get through their tour of duties.  Listen to some veterans talk about being in combat, and if they describe fighting at all, they’ll use some pretty denigrating and racist terms to describe who they fought and what they did.  Are they racists?  No, not really.  This is the only way they can sleep at night without ending up a sobbing pile on the floor.

Law Enforcement Officers who fire at and kill people in the line of duty have to go through counseling for the rest of their careers just to cope with what they did.  Often times, the dehumanizing traits occur.

Think about that, then think about the people who say that teachers should train with guns, just in case they need to be ready to kill one of their students, a kid they spend months teaching and mentoring.

I wasn’t the only person who thinks that arming teachers is a terrible idea.  There are literally dozens hundreds thousands millions of us on Twitter who feel the same way.

Finally, Countercheckist has been rather critical of Bernie Sanders recently.  Okay, ever since I started following him.  He was one of the first to point out that the same bots that were pushing Trump’s message were also pushing Bernie’s message, and they both seemed to have the same reaction to tales of Russian interference.  They blamed Obama.

He’s also shown over time how well connected Paul Manfort is to every single shady mutha fucka that does shady shit.  At this point, I’m half expecting to find out that my elementary school bullies were funded by Paul Manafort.

In a tweet earlier today, Countercheckist alluded to ties between Paul and Bernie.  I don’t know how, and as much as I’d like to say it ain’t so, at this point I wouldn’t be surprised.

 

That’s it for today.  Keep in mind, it’s not even Friday, and we’ve had 5 days of court activity from Robert Mueller in a row.  Manafort is Manafucked.

I have to do the math on this, but there have been over 100 criminal charges filed on 19 people from the Special Counselor’s Office.

And we’re just warming up.

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

No One Plans The Cover-Up

“The Cover-up is Worse than the Crime.”

We’ve all heard that cliche at least once in our lives.  It’s always comes after someone gets caught after committing a crime, and they seemingly got away with it.

And it’s complete and total horseshit.

Lying to the cops isn’t worse than murder, or rape, or robbery, or espionage.  Not even close.  Not on any possible metric.

So, why do we hear this cliche each time someone gets caught after the crime?  Why does someone always mutter this cliche each and every time?

Because the cover-up gets little to no planning ahead of the actual crime.  The cover-up is an afterthought.  The original crime gets all of the planning, but getting away with it is merely an afterthought.

Think back to every heist movie and television series that has come out in the last 20-30 years.  They mostly follow the same pattern…

  • Normal person facing extraordinary stress makes choice to commit a crime to get out of their problems.
  • Every detail of the crime is planned, from the tiniest detail to the second by second execution of the crime itself.
  • Person performs the crime, but something goes wrong after the crime.  Usually, a coconspirator does something stupid.
  • Crazy things happen because they didn’t plan getting away with the crime.
  • The better movies have the person getting caught, or losing more than they gained.  The bad ones have the person living happily ever after.

Every fucking time.  EVERY. FUCKING. TIME.  Now, what do bad movie tropes have to do with Trump-Russia?  Why does it feel like we’re in the middle of a heist movie?

Because like every heist movie, the criminals didn’t plan the getaway.  They’re winging it.  They didn’t think they would win in the first place, so why plan on getting away with it?  The bad guys planned on losing the election and creating a media outlet to spread their message afterward.  Now, they have to govern, and they’re winging it.

Winging it is how they get caught.

So, it’s not that the cover-up is worse than the crime, but the execution of the cover-up is worse than the execution of the crime.

Daily Check-in 02/16/2018

Friday, February 16, 2018.

13 RUSSIANS, 3 COMPANIES INDICTED BY SPECIAL COUNSELOR MUELLER

Special Counselor Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russians and 3 Russian entities for their actions in to influence the 2016 Presidential Election.

This indictment lays out the who, how, where, what, when, and why of the Russian Influence Operation.  It describes how they started this op back in 2014, which coincides with the Ukrainian Revolution.

The Russians used stolen identities to bypass security measures in PayPal, and used those accounts to pay for advertisements on Facebook and other social media sites.  They also paid for expenses for the Trump Campaign, even at low-level like parades.

Here are some excerpts from the indictments.  They can be found Here, at justice.gov.

Defendants’ operations included supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump (“Trump Campaign”) and disparaging Hillary Clinton. Defendants made various expenditures to carry out those activities, including buying political advertisements on social media in the names of U.S. persons and entities. Defendants also staged political rallies inside the United States, and while posing as U.S. grassroots entities and U.S. persons, and without revealing their Russian identities and ORGANIZATION affiliation, solicited and compensated real U.S. persons to promote or disparage candidates. Some Defendants, posing as U.S. persons and without revealing their Russian association, communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities.

There has been a lot of talk about the Russians organizing opposing rallies, and using friendly sources in the U.S. as feet on the ground.  This confirms it.

In order to carry out their activities to interfere in U.S. political and electoral processes without detection of their Russian affiliation, Defendants conspired to obstruct the lawful functions of the United States government through fraud and deceit, including by making expenditures in connection with the 2016 U.S. presidential election without proper regulatory disclosure; failing to register as foreign agents carrying out political activities within the United States; and obtaining visas through false and fraudulent statements.

So, we have Russians giving money to the Trump Campaign, and several FARA violations as well.  Not to mention, lying on an entry visa.

Defendants and their co-conspirators used their fictitious online personas to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election. They engaged in operations primarily intended to communicate derogatory information about Hillary Clinton, to denigrate other candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and to support Bernie Sanders and then-candidate Donald Trump.

Yes.  Attack everyone except Trump. and Bernie.  I mentioned in Trump vs. Bernie how this was Putin’s goal for the U.S. Presidential Election.

On or about February 10, 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators internally circulated an outline of themes for future content to be posted to ORGANIZATION-controlled social media accounts. Specialists were instructed to post content that focused on “politics in the USA” and to “use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump–we support them).”

That quote is interesting.  That sounds like a direct quote from an internal email or some other type of surveillance.  Remember, The Dutch Had Eyes on Cozy Bear.

 From at least April 2016 through November 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators, while concealing their Russian identities and ORGANIZATION affiliation through false personas, began to produce, purchase, and post advertisements on U.S. social media and other online sites expressly advocating for the election of then-candidate Trump or expressly opposing Clinton. Defendants and their co-conspirators did not report their expenditures to the Federal Election Commission, or register as foreign agents with the U.S. Department of Justice. The political advertisements included the following:

  • April 6, 2016 “You know, a great number of black people support us saying that #HillaryClintonlsNotMyPresident”
  • April 7, 2016 “I say no to Hillary Clinton / I say no to manipulation”
  • April 19, 2016 “JOIN our #HillaryClintonForPrison2016”
  • May 10, 2016 “Donald wants to defeat terrorism … Hillary wants to sponsor it”
  • May 19, 2016 “Vote Republican, vote Trump, and support the Second Amendment!”
  • May 24, 2016 “Hillary Clinton Doesn’t Deserve the Black Vote”
  • June 7, 2016 “Trump is our only hope for a better future!”
  • June 30, 2016 “#Never Hillary #Hillary F orPrison #Hillary4 Prison #HillaryForPrison2016 #Trump2016 #Trump #Trump4President”
  • July 20, 2016 “Ohio Wants Hillary 4 Prison”
  • August 4, 2016 “Hillary Clinton has already committed voter fraud during the Democrat Iowa Caucus.”
  • August 10, 2016 “We cannot trust Hillary to take care of our veterans!”
  • October 14, 2016 “Among all the candidates Donald Trump is the one and only who can defend the police from terrorists.”
  • October 19, 2016 “Hillary is a Satan, and her crimes and lies had proved just how evil she is.”

I have personally seen several of those ads on Facebook.  Plus, this mentions that coconspirators helped pay for these ads.  The Russians had help.

To pay for the political advertisements, Defendants and their co-conspirators established various Russian bank accounts and credit cards, often registered in the names of fictitious U.S. personas created and used by the ORGANIZATION on social media. Defendants and their coconspirators also paid for other political advertisements using PayPal accounts.

PayPal.  This is the first time I’ve talked about PayPal, but it won’t be the last.  EBay announced that they’ll be cutting ties with PayPal in 2020.  Not only that, but PayPal co-founder and Trump enabler Peter Theil is leaving Silicon Valley.

Beginning in at least 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators used, without lawful authority, the social security numbers, home addresses, and birth dates of real U.S. persons without their knowledge or consent. Using these means of stolen identification, Defendants and their coconspirators opened accounts at a federally insured U.S. financial institution (“Bank I”)

Louise Mensch reported last may about Silicon Valley Bank, a subsidiary of Alfa Bank, being under FISA investigation.  They could have used any bank in the United States, but there’s this little thing called the Patriot Act.  Part of it requires that all new bank accounts created require proof of human beingness and a physical presence. This prevents rampant fraud and money laundering.  The Russians would need feet on the ground to pull this off, and there’s just enough here to make me think SVB was used to set up the American Accounts.

Defendants and their co-conspirators purchased credit card and bank account numbers from online sellers for the unlawful purpose of evading security measures at PayPal, which used account numbers to verify a user’s identity. Many of the bank account numbers purchased by Defendants and their co-conspirators were created using the stolen identities of real U.S. persons. After purchasing the accounts, Defendants and their co-conspirators submitted these bank account numbers to PayPal.

See “California Man” below.

On or about August 18, 2016, the real “Florida for Trump” Facebook account responded to
the false U.S. persona “Matt Skiber” account with instructions to contact a member of the Trump
Campaign (“Campaign Official l “) involved in the campaign’s Florida operations and provided Campaign Official 1’s email address at the campaign domain donaldtrump.com. On approximately the same day, Defendants and their co-conspirators used the email address of a false U.S. persona, joshmilton024@gmail.com, to send an email to Campaign Official 1 at that donaldtrump.com email account, which read in part:

“Hello [Campaign Official l], [w]e are organizing a state-wide event in Florida on August, 20 to support Mr. Trump. Let us introduce ourselves first. “Being Patriotic” is a grassroots conservative online movement trying to unite people offline. . . . [W]e gained a huge lot of followers and decided to somehow help Mr. Trump get elected. You know, simple yelling on the Internet is not enough. There should be real action. We organized rallies in New York before. Now we’re focusing on purple states such as Florida.” The email also identified thirteen “confirmed locations” in Florida for the rallies and requested the campaign provide “assistance in each location.”

Here’s more proof that the Russians were trying to coordinate their events with Trump’s campaign. The group asked Florida for Trump for help in location scouting.

On or about August 24, 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators updated an internal ORGANIZATION list of over 100 real U.S. persons contacted through ORGANIZATION controlled false U.S. persona accounts and tracked to monitor recruitment efforts and requests. The list included contact information for the U.S. persons, a summary of their political views, and activities they had been asked to perform by Defendants and their co-conspirators.

If some random person in the Summer of 2016 reached out from Heart of Texas, Blacktivists, or one of the other groups mentioned, and asked you to recruit for their cause, congratulations.  You’ve been had by the Russians.  And, you’re probably under surveillance by the USIC as well.

 Use of U.S. Computer Infrastructure

To hide their Russian identities and ORGANIZATION affiliation, Defendants and their co- conspirators—particularly POLOZOV and the ORGANIZATION’s IT department—purchased space on computer servers located inside the United States in order to set up virtual private networks (“VPNs”). Defendants and their co-conspirators connected from Russia to the U.S.-based infrastructure by way of these VPNs and conducted activity inside the United States— including accessing online social media accounts, opening new accounts, and communicating with real U.S. persons—while masking the Russian origin and control of the activity.

Defendants and their co-conspirators also registered and controlled hundreds of web-based email accounts hosted by U.S. email providers under false names so as to appear to be U.S. persons and groups. From these accounts, Defendants and their co-conspirators registered or linked to online social media accounts in order to monitor them; posed as U.S. persons when requesting assistance from real U.S. persons; contacted media outlets in order to promote activities inside the United States; and conducted other operations, such as those set forth below.

Now we get to the IT side of things.  The Russians, with help here in the United States, purchased server space here, as well as a VPN connection that terminates in this country.  My guess is that these servers were located out west, like Arizona or California.  I’ve seen quite a few suspicious “news” sites on Facebook that Whois’ed to the same server farms out there.  They looked identical to sites from St. Petersburg, Moscow, or Crimea.  On top of this, they also used email services based in the United States to make these social media platforms.

Destruction of Evidence

In order to avoid detection and impede investigation by U.S. authorities of Defendants’ operations, Defendants and their co-conspirators deleted and destroyed data, including emails, social media accounts, and other evidence of their activities.

  1. Beginning in or around June 2014, and continuing into June 2015, public reporting began to identify operations conducted by the ORGANIZATION in the United States. In response, Defendants and their co-conspirators deleted email accounts used to conduct their operations.
  2. Beginning in or around September 2017, U.S. social media companies, starting with Facebook, publicly reported that they had identified Russian expenditures on their platforms to fund political and social advertisements. Facebook’s initial disclosure of the Russian purchases occurred on or about September 6, 2017, and included a statement that Facebook had “shared [its] findings with US authorities investigating these issues.”
  3. Media reporting on or about the same day as Facebook’s disclosure referred to Facebook working with investigators for the Special Counsel’s Office of the U.S. Department of Justice, which had been charged with investigating the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
  4. Defendants and their co-conspirators thereafter destroyed evidence for the purpose of impeding the investigation. On or about September 13, 2017, KAVERZINA wrote in an email to a family member: “We had a slight crisis here at work: the FBI busted our activity (not a joke). So, I got preoccupied with covering tracks together with the colleagues.” KAVERZINA further wrote, “I created all these pictures and posts, and the Americans believed that it was written by their people.”

As soon as Facebook shared their findings on the activity came out, they were literally destroying the evidence of their activities when one of them emailed a family member saying that she was busy with that.  That also says that we somehow had eyes on them.

Daily Check-In 10/17/2017 has a write-up of the boss of the Internet Research Agency.  He’s been called “Putin’s Chef”, so the use of Concord Catering in the indictment kind of makes sense now.

These indictments are important for several reasons.

  • They establish specific crimes against the United States performed by Russian nationals.
  • This shows directly that the Russians wanted Trump to win the election.
  • It shows that Americans helped in this matter.
  • Any action taken against the Special Counselor or Rod Rosenstein will be seen as helping Russia AND Obstruction of Justice.
  • The timing comes right after the IC heads told Congress that Russia attacked us and will attack us again.
  • It gives Congress time to either put election reforms and protections in place, or show their true colors.

Are these Russians going to get extradited to the United States?  Not unless they leave Russia.  Remember a few weeks ago when a a Russian hacker was captured on vacation in Spain and sent here?  If any of them try to leave Russia, they stand a good chance of getting stopped, detained, and shipped here to face trial.

Now, the Americans that helped them are a different story.

 

“CALIFORNIA MAN” RICHARD PINEDO PLEADS GUILTY

About an hour after the indictments dropped and the Trump supporters twisted themselves into knots saying “See, no Americans were involved!”, Mueller busts out a guilty plea for Richard Pinedo.

Richard ran a company called Auction Essentials, where he would sell bank account numbers on the dark web to anyone who had the money.  He would either set up the accounts himself, or buy them from someone else.  Richard would sell these accounts, and ask no questions.

It turns out that he sold some of these bank accounts to the Russians in the indictment, and they were used to bypass the PayPal verification system.  Anyone can set up an account with them, but to have it listed in the U.S., they require it being linked to a U.S. bank account.

I’ve never liked PayPal, and never will.  It’s too easy to scam people with it by reversing charges without proof, and the fraud protection sucked.  But they were the first “Internet Currency”, and without them, Elon Musk wouldn’t have launched an electric car into space.

There is a Richard Pinedo, of Ventura County, California that belongs to the Ventura County Tea Party.  I do not know yet if this is the same person or not, but I would not be surprised in the slightest at this point.

 

HOW TRUMP USED INTERMEDIARIES TO PAY OFF HIS AFFAIRS

Now that I’ve spent a lot of time talking about Russia fucking America, let me talk about Trump fucking young women.  More to the point, how his friends covered it up.

Ronan Farrow of the New Yorker broke one hell of a story about a young woman in the Adult Entertainment Industry that allegedly had an affair with Donald Trump just a few months after his wife gave birth to their son Barron, and how about a decade later, this woman was paid into silence.

No, it’s not Stormy Daniels.

It’s former Playmate of the Year Karen McDougall.

Their stories are almost the exact same.  They fucked Trump, he offered to pay them, they said no, it went on for a while, then they split up.  Years later, right before the election, a surrogate for Trump offers to pay the women if they’ll keep their mouth shut.

For Karen, that surrogate is David Pecker, owner of American Media, which owns the National Enquirer.  He bought her story for $150,000, promised her a platform for articles, and a couple other things.

Instead of publishing, Pecker buried the story.

Karen told her story, even at the risk of legal action, because she doesn’t want other women to go through what she’s gone through.

If you’re wondering who Ronan Farrow is, Ask Harvey Weinstein.

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

FCC CHAIRMAN AJIT PAI UNDER INVESTIGATION FOR POSSIBLY COLLUDING WITH SINCLAIR BROADCASTING

FACEBOOK TAKES DOWN NALVANY VIDEO

SCHIFF: HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE HAS PROOF OF RUSSIAN COLLUSION

 

RUMOR MILL: THE MEDIA CONSPIRACY

While most of Twitter and Reddit are talking about what’s going on today, I ran across a very interesting thread by Lincoln’s Bible.  He’s the one who mentioned a few weeks back about a lot of Anti-Trump movies in the pipeline in Hollywood.  This came out earlier in the day, right after the Ronan Farrow story broke.  It answered a question I had  a while back during the election.

We know that Trump is an asshole, a misogynist and a racist.  The Billy Bush Pussygate tape showed the first two definitively, and there are strong rumors of the last from several people that worked on The Apprentice.  Among these include Tom Arnold and George Takei.  Before the election, there was a large outcry for the behind-the-scenes tapes to leak out showing Trump dropping the N-word.  But the owner of that show, Mark Burnett, refused to release anything.

Why?  Why would he not do what was being seen as a patriotic duty and release information vital to the fate of the country?

Lincoln’s Bible answered that question…they be mobbed up.

Burnett and Pecker hold power over Trump, and are both fond of Vladimir Putin.  They hold undue leverage over Trump, and others in society.  Burnett made half the country think Donald Trump was what a good boss should be, and Pecker has been running Pro-Trump or Anti-Democrat stories on his tabloid rag for about two years.

I’m not sure where this is leading, but it’ll be interesting.  Not necessarily good, but interesting.

 

That’s it for today, I think.

So, what happens now?  I don’t know.  I still haven’t heard a confirmation that Rick Gates has signed his flipping paperwork, but that’ll probably happen Tuesday when the courts open.  There’s a reason the Russian Indictments came out today.  As I said, this makes it nearly impossible to fire Robert Mueller before he lays out Obstruction of Justice charges.  The end game is not Obstruction, but it will be the low-hanging fruit that gets Trump and Pence out of office.  Once they’re out, the Mueller can go for the kill.

Corruption.  Abuse of Power.  RICO.  Human Trafficking.  Money Laundering.  Espionage.  Treason.

I don’t how fast things will go from here on out.  I think these just bought several months, but I think things will accelerate from here on out.

Why?  I don’t know, I just got a feeling that things will go on a little faster from here on out, until we get to indictments against Trump for Obstruction of Justice.

Also, I’ve learned over the past couple years to always bet on stupid when Trump is involved.  Rule 45:  Out of all possible outcomes, pick the dumbest one available.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur