Holy shit, it’s only Wednesday!

 

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE GAVE MUELLER DOCUMENTS ON THWARTED SESSIONS RESIGNATION FROM LAST JUNE

Back in November, the Department of Justice gave the Special Counselor’s Office documents regarding the attempted resignation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Back befor Mueller was named the Special Counselor, Jeff Sessions had to recuse himself from any investigations regarding Russia, due to being a member of the Foreign Relations Committee on the Trump Campaign.  He can’t oversee an investigation where he might be investigating himself.

Fast forward a couple months, and Mueller is named the Special Counselor.  Trump had a shitfit, and the Keebler Nazi offered to resign.  This went back and forth until June, when Trump ultimately did not accept the resignation.  That didn’t stop him from publicly blaming Jeff for everything that had gone wrong, and if he’d known that Jeff would recuse, he never would have named him as Attorney General.

This resignation was an end-around method of firing Mueller.  Because Sessions was recused, he had no say over what Rod Rosenstein could order Robert Mueller to do.  But, if Sessions wasn’t in that position, the replacement could then order the investigation to end.

These events took place in the Spring and Summer of 2017, and Mueller received the documents in November 2017.  They’ve had two months to study them, and news is just coming out about them.

Trump is fucked, yo.

 

MUELLER SEEKS INTERVIEW WITH CORALLO

In more Trump is Fucked news, Mueller wants to meet with Mark Corallo, former spokesman for Trump’s Legal Team.

Mark resigned from the team last Summer, following the Donnie Jr. Statement about the Russians that Trump authored and told his son to publish.

From the book “Fire and Fury”

“Corallo, seeing no good outcome — and privately confiding that he believed the meeting on Air Force One represented a likely obstruction of justice — quit,” Michael Wolff reports in his explosive new book “Fire and Fury.”

People are asking “Why now?  Why not earlier?”  Here’s why I think it’s just going down now…

Mark is a lawyer, and was one of Trump’s lawyers.  As much as Bobby can tell people to show up for questioning, they need a damn good reason first.  Doubly so if the person is a lawyer, and double that if they want to ask a lawyer for the President what he saw.  This is a legal hand grenade they’re holding, and if it isn’t handled just right, it could go off in their face.

My guess is they likely will speak to him, voluntarily, and will get some pushback from the White House about executive privilege, or attorney-client privilege, which will be shot down since he was no longer their attorney when they were committing what he felt was a crime.

 

TRUMP ASKED ROSENSTEIN IF HE WAS ‘ON MY TEAM’

Nothing like asking for loyalty when hiring senior members of the Justice Department.

Trump wanted to know where the special counsel’s Russia investigation was heading. And he wanted to know whether Rosenstein was “on my team.”

Rosenstein’s meeting with the President came as Rosenstein prepared to testify before the House Judiciary Committee. Trump appeared focused on Rosenstein’s testimony, according to a source briefed on the matter, and he brought it up with the deputy attorney general.

As a further sign of the President’s focus on Rosenstein’s testimony, one of the sources said Trump also had suggested questions to members of Congress that they could ask Rosenstein.

The shit is flying fast and furious now.

 

THE NUNES MEMO IS, AT BEST, A PR CLUSTERFUCK

Here’s what we know so far…

• Devin Nunes doesn’t deny working with the White House on the memo.
• FBI Director Wray opposes the release of the memo, and pretty much calls it bullshit.
• Kash Patel, the staffer who wrote the memo for Nunes, was reprimanded for being a giant dumbass in Texas.
• Of course, Trump wants to release it, but can’t be bothered to READ FOUR FUCKING PAGES!
• The FBI is SOOOO pissed off about this, they released a statement.

January 31, 2018

FBI Statement on HPSCI Memo

The FBI takes seriously its obligations to the FISA Court and its compliance with procedures overseen by career professionals in the Department of Justice and the FBI. We are committed to working with the appropriate oversight entities to ensure the continuing integrity of the FISA process.

With regard to the House Intelligence Committee’s memorandum, the FBI was provided a limited opportunity to review this memo the day before the committee voted to release it. As expressed during our initial review, we have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.

Material omissions of fact.  Fuck.  That’s a very polite way of calling Nunes a lying son of a bitch by use of cherry picking.

 

STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS REVIEW

Here are some takeaways from what was, and likely will be, Trump’s only State of the Union Address…

Trump took credit for Obama’s accomplishments.

Trump asked Congress to end the rule of law by asking for permission to fire career government officials who aren’t working for the “good of the country.”

“Whoever translated it for him from Russian did a good job.”

The scariest part isn’t the crazy stuff Trump says or does, but how servile the Republicans have become.

 

SPYCRAFT 101:  DON’T BLOW YOUR COVER

John Schindler has a great write-up of how Trump’s inactions on implementing sanctions show that he is without a doubt a Russian Asset.

 

TREY GOWDY NOT RUNNING FOR RE-ELECTION

Trey Gowdy is not seeking re-election to represent a very safe district in South Carolina.

For a while, he was the only member of Congress that was more of a shill for Trump than Nunes.  However, he’s deciding to go “back to Justice.”  There’s a rumor that he’s angling for a seat on the 4th District Appeals Court.

 

MATTIS WANTS CELL PHONES BANNED FROM PENTAGON

Secretary of Defense James Mattis wants to ban personal cell phones from the Pentagon, following recent security concerns.

Over the past weekend, it was discovered that soldiers using the Strava workout app were unintentionally sharing their locations, and the locations of secret military bases around the world. This, combined with likely unauthorized recordings in the White House by former staffers are pushing this forward.

 

TRAIN CARRYING GOP MEMBERS TO RETREAT IN WEST VIRGINIA CRASHES WITH TRUCK

The members of Congress were on their way to a retreat in West Virginia.

As of this writing, there is 1 fatality.

 

OP-ED:  WHY IS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY GASLIGHTING AMERICA?

Here’s an interesting opinion piece that might get lost in the shuffle, given everything else happening today.

 

TRUMP ADMIN SEEKS TO CUT RESEARCH INTO CLEAN ENERGY BY 72 PERCENT

In a “Fuck You” to the future, Trump wants to cut research into clean energy so that this country can focus on fossil fuels.

In other news, next week he plans to ban Spotify to prop up the phonograph industry.

 

STORMY DANIELS ON JIMMY KIMMEL

It’s a crazy ass world when a porn star denies writing a letter signed under their stage name, and they have more credibility than a lawyer representing the President.

I’m not sure how best to describe this, except, WTF?

 

RUMOR MILL:  GOWDY’S GOING TO PRISON

Regarding Trey Gowdy’s decision to not seek re-election, many of the voices in the Rumor Mill come to the same conclusion:

Trey Gowdy is going to prison.

Maybe not right away, but soon.  Gowdy, like Nunes, was part of the Trump Transition Team.  You know, the one that Mike Flynn was a part of and flipped on.  What are the odds that Flynn gave Mueller the dirt on everyone on the team?  I’d say those numbers are between 95% to 99.999999999999999999999999% likely.

Gowdy has also been caught receiving campaign contributions directly from Trump’s PAC on the day that the House Intelligence Committee began its work.

Gowdy isn’t the first, and won’t be the last high-profile Republican to get out while the getting’s good.  Especially as the shitstorm of leaks and information rains down from Justice over the Nunes Memo.

 

That’s it for today, so far.  As I’m writing this, it’s late afternoon, early evening, so something big will happen.  I’ll update when I can.

This day reminds me of an old clip from Dennis Miller Live, when he was talking about watching the O.J. Simpson car chase.  I’m paraphrasing here, but he said something like “I couldn’t help but watch.  Not just because I was transfixed at how weird this shit was, but I kept thinking ‘This is L.A..  This is the only place were we’ll get pulled from this to something even weirder, like a helicopter chase where the Queen of England is blowing Barney the Dinosaur.'”

That’s what this feels like.  I’m half expecting to hear a report about how Donald Trump got pegged by Her Royal Majesty with a 14″ black strap-on.

Now that I’ve put THAT image in your mind…

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

TRUMP TRIED TO FIRE MUELLER BACK IN JUNE 2017.  NEW YORK TIMES SAT ON STORY FOR 7 MONTHS

Back in June, President Donald Trump tried to fire Special Counselor Robert Mueller.  The only thing that stopped him was White House Counsel and long time Trump lawyer Don McGahn threatening to quit.

This happened back on June 12, 2017.  The story wasn’t released until January 25, 2017.  The New York Times, mainly Maggie Haberman, sat on this story for 7 months.

I’m not surprised by this story in the slightest.  Back last summer, there was a concerted effort from the RWM to discredit Mueller for three goofy reasons.  Those were about Mueller hiring lawyers that donated to the Democratic Party, Mueller canceling his membership at a Trump golf course over an argument about fees, and that Mueller had just interviewed for the FBI Director job the day before he was appointed the Special Counselor.  These exact same reasons were repeated ad nauseum on Fox News back in June.  The Rumor Mill sounded the warning bell that Mark Kasowitz, Trump’s lawyer at the time, was doing some digging into Mueller, and that Trump was seriously considering firing Mueller.

I’m also not surprised that they actually tried to fire him back in June.  Trump knows he’s screwed if anyone looks into his past.

I’m also not surprised that Maggie sat on this story for 7 months.  She is an Access Journalist, and thrives off of her ability to get close to Donald Trump.  She can get him to say some stupid stuff on the record, but she also knows that if she goes too far, too fast, she’ll lose that access.

I’m also not surprised by the timing of this.  This is a big story, but it wasn’t the biggest of the day.  This was not the biggest story of the day.  This is a distraction.

What I do find surprising is the hero of this story is none other than Don McGahn.  The same Don McGahn that lobbied Jeff Sessions to not recuse himself, and wrote the rough draft of the Comey firing letter.  Suddenly, in June, he decides that firing Mueller is a step too far for him.

This story, combined with his cameo in the WaPo story from inside the Mueller interrogation room and that him and Bannon share the same lawyer, leads me to think that the rumors of McGahn flipping might be true.  Supposedly, this happened on McGahn’s second interview.  After he saw how screwed he was from the first interview, he decided to flip.

 

DUCTH INTELLIGENCE INFILTRATED RUSSIAN HACKER CELL COZY BEAR, SAW ATTACKS ON UNITED STATES IN REAL TIME.

This is massive. Like, NATO Article 5 massive.

Dutch Intelligence executed an Intel operation against Russia following the crash of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine.  It’s been long suspected in the IC that Russia via Russian Separatists shot down the flight as an attempt to discredit the new Ukrainian government after they voted out Yanokonovitch.  Remember, this flight took off from Amsterdam, and was filled with Dutch citizens.

The Dutch worked their way into Cozy Bear, one of Russia’s main hacking cells.

They were in their network.  They know where they’re at.

They were in their servers.  They know what they did.

They were in their security cameras.  They know what they look like.

While there, the Dutch saw, in real time, Russian hackers and spies attacking the United States in Cyberwarfare, directed primarily at affecting the 2016 Presidential Election.

The Dutch informed the U.S. via the FBI that the Russians were attacking us.  This was well before the Steele Dossier ever came to light.  And they weren’t the only foreign Intel agency that warned the United States.

However, the article also states that the Dutch have been very reluctant to share intel since Trump came to office.  Probably because they saw something, but also because the Trump Administration likely tipped off the Russians about the Dutch.

The Dutch were in this system from 2014 to late 2016, early 2017.  But something changed.  One day, they lost access, likely through a firewall change or a security scan.  This might not sound like a big deal, but this was a change in their behavior patterns.  Think about it like this…

People have a tendency to get complacent.  This is true in IT and hacking as well.  They’ll set up an ultra-secure, air-tight, white-listed infrastructure, and then… leave it alone for a long time, until an outside event forces a change.  That could be getting a new computer, the router explodes, moving to a new building, or responding to a new threat.

What likely happened is that someone in Team Trump, like Devin Nunes or Trey Gowdy, leaked this highly-classified information to someone who got it to the Russians.  The Russians were tipped off that their network was compromised, so they updated their firewall and put in new security measures.

I made this observation on Twitter, and Louise herself confirmed it.  That confirmation was then confirmed as being either Devin, or someone else like him.

 

DONNIE JR. JUDICIARY TRANSCRIPTS TO BE RELEASED SOON

Soon, we’ll get to read the transcripts of Donnie Jr.’s hearing.  We’ll get to count how many times he lied to the Senate.

Of course, Mueller’s team gets a copy of this first.  They’re interested in his lies as well.

 

THE COORDINATED GOP EFFORT TO DISCREDIT THE TRUMP-RUSSIA INVESTIGATION

The GOP has been screaming crazy stuff louder than normal recently.  It’s almost like they’re getting ready for some disastrous news that could take down the Trump Administration and anyone associated with them.

 

MUELLER FINISHING UP OBSTRUCTION INVESTIGATION

Maybe the GOP is worried about this?

If Mueller is making moves to set up an interview with Trump, then we’re at the point where near the end-game of this phase.  Interviewing the likely suspect is the last step before the hammer drops.

 

SAM BROWNBACK RESIGNS

Sam Brownback resigns as Governor of Kansas.

After destroying the Kansas economy in a Libertarian Wet Dream Experiment, he’s leaving his job to become an Ambassador at large for Religious Freedom.

Remember, Paul Ryan was his former staffer.  So this is the asshole we have to thank for that spineless shit.

 

RUMOR MILL – BRIGHT LIGHTS OF HOLLYWOOD

Something that I saw on Twitter Friday morning (yes, I’m writing this on Friday) was a nice long thread about how Hollywood is working on MANY Trump related products.  And none of them show him in a good light.  Nor his allies or his enablers.  And it’s not just one or two people or networks, but pretty much everyone.

This will be disastrous for the GOP.  Remember “All The President’s Men”?  I’ve never read the book or read the Bernstein/Woodward articles from Watergate, but I’ve seen that movie at least 40 times.  Every character in that movie has become immortalized, every trope cemented in lore and “Follow the Money” has become THE go-to instruction for uncovering corruption.

These projects are already in motion, and will be made until all of the stories are told.  And that could be a lifetime or two or ten.

In the last few months, two new movies dealing with Nixonian corruption were released to theaters, “Felt” and “The Post.”  “Felt” stars Liam Neeson as FBI Deputy Director Mark Felt, who was Bob Woodward’s source in Watergate that was nicknamed “Deep Throat.”  “The Post” is a movie about the Washington Post uncovering the Vietnam Papers.  It’s directed by Speilberg, starring Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, and Bob Odenkirk.

There will be a metric fuckton of movies, plays, TV shows, and web series about Trump and his crimes.  They’ll cover everything and everyone.  Some will be serious, some won’t.  Some will be flattering, most won’t.

I’m looking forward to a Jordan Peele directed love story between Donald and Ivanka starring Kevin Hart as Donald Trump and Leslie Jones as Ivanka.

 

That’s it for today.  I really don’t want to go any weirder than that.  I could, easily.  But I’ll save that for another article.

This weekend might be a little sparse.  Not that news won’t happen today, but real life will be pretty busy.  I’ll write when I can.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur