It’s Wednesday, and I’ve been under the weather the past few days.  Hell, I’m still sick as a dog, so this week will be light on updates, but that doesn’t mean that the world stops.

Here’s a few of the bigger events from the past weekend, and up to today.

GOP PASSES TAX BILL

TRUMP ADMITS TO OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE ON TWITTER, THEN HIS LAWYER TRIES TO SAY IT WAS HIM WHO WROTE IT FROM TRUMP’S ACCOUNT ON A SATURDAY MORNING.

LATER, JOHN DOWD (LAWYER FROM ABOVE) SAYS THAT A PRESIDENT CAN’T OBSTRUCT JUSTICE.

EMAILS SHOW THAT FLYNN DID NOT ACT ALONE

KREMLIN TRIED TO CREATE BACKCHANNEL TIES TO TRUMP CAMPAIGN THROUGH NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION

TRUMP DIRECTED RNC TO CHANGE UKRAINE POLICIES

TRUMP BENEFITED FROM PENTAGON RENTING APARTMENT IN TRUMP TOWER

MANAFORT COULD HAVE BAIL REVOKED AFTER WRITING OP-ED WITH KNOWN RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE AGENT

HERE’S A LINK TO THE OP-ED

MIKE PENCE IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED

MUELLER SUBPOENAED DEUTSCHE BANK FOR TRUMP FINANCIAL RECORDS

RUSSIAN ANTI-DOPING HEAD DIES OF “RUSSIAN HEART ATTACK” FOLLOWING THEIR OLYMPIC BAN

REZA ZARRAB MIGHT BE PUT IN WITNESS PROTECTION PROGRAM

MUELLER’S TEAM WORKING HARD TO GET RICK GATES TO FLIP ON PAUL MANAFORT, MAY USE SUPERSEDING INDICTMENTS ON HIM

THE STORY OF GP’S ARREST.

TIME PERSON OF YEAR: THE SILENCE BREAKERS

TRUMP ENDORSES ROY MOORE

WHISTLEBLOWER APPROACHED MUELLER IN JUNE WITH FLYNN TEXT MESSAGES AND WARNINGS ABOUT NUCLEAR REACTOR PROJECT

FIRST ATTEMPT AT AN IMPEACHMENT VOTE

 

That’s what happened over the last few days.   At least, that’s what I’ve got so far.  Hopefully, I’ll be back to semi-normal in the next couple days.  But, out of everything, the biggest takeaway from the weekend is this…

Donald Trump’s legal team has changed the narrative again.  They are no longer arguing that he didn’t obstruct justice or collude with Russia, but that they aren’t crimes.

Aside from being completely laughable, this argument tacitly implies that Donald Trump and his team did those things.  They’re not saying “He didn’t obstruct justice, and it isn’t a crime.”  They’re saying “A President can’t obstruct justice.”  Those are two different arguments.

The next biggest thing to happen is the acknowledgement that Mueller has Trump’s financial records from Deutsche Bank.  That bank recently was hit with nearly half a billion dollars in fines for laundering Russian money for many years, and it’s interesting to note that they continue to do business with Donald Trump, even after he sued the bank after defaulting on a loan.  No one else will work with Trump, but DBank keeps giving him money.  Could it be that DBank is receiving matching funds from VEB, VTB, or other Russian banks, and Deutsche Bank is merely the front-facing company in the loan?

Finally, there was an interesting spike in Mike Pence stories in the last few days.  He’s been flying under the radar the last few months, apparently trying to keep his neck clean.  But I noticed something about the stories that were floating around about him.  A general theme.

Pence ratted out his fraternity brothers for having a beer keg in the house.  Pence offered to take over the top spot on the ticket for the RNC on a ticket with him and Condeleeza Rice.  Pence’s wife hates Trump.  Pence sees himself as destined by God to become the President.  Pence continuously made false statements about Mike Flynn’s role in the Transition Team.

There’s a theme, and that is that Mike Pence can’t be trusted.  At least, Trump can’t trust Pence.

This creates a problem for Trump, who is already paranoid AF.  Pence is the one person he can’t fire in the Executive Branch.  There is no statute, provision, or policy on the books which allows for a VP to be removed from office, except by resignation or the impeachment process.  With Trump’s increasing paranoia, these stories build to two possible conclusions.

Pence is angling for Trump’s job, and the only way that Trump can protect himself is to attack Pence.

If I were to wargame this out, Trump attacking Pence on Twitter has a strong likelihood of bringing down the Republican Party as we see it, and creating the split into two parties that I’ve alluded to in The Multi-Party System.

Still, it’s pretty unlikely, but this is 2017, the Hold-My-Beer year.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

Friday. Remember how I said something big was coming?

FLYNN FLIPPED

December 1, 2017:  The man who led the “Lock Her Up” chants in the Trump Campaign Rallies pleads guilty to lying to the FBI as part of a plea deal to keep his son from facing espionage charges.

Mike Flynn was arrested and charged with one count of lying to the FBI. This is in lieu of other charges, and dependent on his cooperation with the Special Counselor.

Flynn admitted to lying to the FBI during an interview in January about two meetings he had with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak in December 2016. Those meetings were being monitored by the IC. It didn’t take long for them to catch him in a lie.

Flynn testified today that he spoke to Kislyak under orders from a senior member of the Presidential Transition Team.

Flynn is fully cooperating in exchange for a reduced sentence for him and his son. If he holds out in any way, then Mueller will ruin him and his son.

I mentioned in Flipping Flynn how many people are at risk, and how bad Mueller can destroy Flynn. But understand one thing…

Flipping is like fishing, and the cooperating witness is the bait. You don’t flip a big fish to get little fish. You use them to get a bigger fish.

Who’s the bigger fish than Mike Flynn?

Jared Kushner

Donnie Jr., maybe the rest of the family

Vice President Mike Pence

President Donald Trump

If I were one of them, I’d be shitting a brick right now.

They were blindsided by this. No one is leaking. The White House found out about Flynn’s guilty plea by watching the news.

I wonder how they’ll find out about the next series of indictments.

By the way, Flynn was FEATHERS13.

FEATHERS14 and 15 are airborne. Happy Hunting.

Trump Transition Team.

Leadership

The Trump transition team was led by Vice President-elect Mike Pence. It originally had six vice-chairs, which was expanded on November 29, 2016 to thirteen vice-chairs: Ben Carson, Chris Christie (previously head of the transition from May 2016 through election day), Michael Flynn (incoming National Security Advisor), Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, Jeff Sessions (incoming Attorney General), with the addition of K. T. McFarland (incoming Deputy National Security Advisor), Gov. Mary Fallin, Sen. Tim Scott, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (previously on the executive committee), Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Rep. Tom Reed, and outgoing Rep. Cynthia Lummis.[74][75][76]

That’s the list of official leadership of the Transition Team, with the following people making up the Executive Committee

•     Steve Bannon, Trump campaign CEO; named Counselor to the President on November 13
•     Rep. Lou Barletta
•     Rep. Marsha Blackburn (moved to vice-chair)
•     Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi
•     Rep. Chris Collins
•     Rep. Tom Marino
•     Rebekah Mercer – director of the Mercer Family Foundation and daughter of major Trump (and Cruz) donor Robert Mercer.
•     Steven Mnuchin — former partner at Goldman Sachs,[77] incoming Secretary of the Treasury
•     Rep. Devin Nunes
•     Reince Priebus — Republican National Committee chairman; named incoming White House Chief of Staff on November 13
•     Anthony Scaramucci — Hedge-fund manager and founder of investment firm SkyBridge Capital, formerly at Goldman Sachs
•     Peter Thiel – Co-founder of PayPal, now a venture capitalist involved in several groups including Clarium Capital and Founders Fund.[78]
•     Donald Trump Jr.
•     Eric Trump
•     Ivanka Trump
•     Jared Kushner, businessman; husband of Ivanka Trump

Additional executive committee members added on November 29, 2016:

•     Rep. Sean Duffy
•     Rep. Trey Gowdy
•     Rep. Dennis Ross
•     Pastor Darrell C. Scott
•     Kiron Skinner

Most of the people here are likely sleeping fitfully tonight.

Shit, another thing, the lawyers that filed this are Zainab Ahmad and Brandon Van Grack. She is THE EXPERT on flipping defendants against their co-conspirators, and he’s THE EXPERT on espionage cases.

Flynn’s plea doesn’t explicitly prevent him from being prosecuted for other crimes, either. They have him on a microscopic leash.

Other stuff happened today, like the GOP trying to ram through their tax plan that only benefits rich people and will cause a recession at best. There’s only one way to cover everything else…

SPEED ROUND!

• John Conyers hospitalized for stress related illness after being asked to resign by Nancy Pelosi.
• Fat Fuck Farenthold settled a sexual harassment claim against him for $84,000.
• Trey Gowdy settled a wrongful dismissal lawsuit for $150,000 for firing a staffer for not investigating Hilary Clinton.
• Several exits are rumored for early next year.
• Medvedev says relations with U.S. at all-time low.
• Erik Prince testified before House Intelligence Committee Thursday about his Russian back channel meeting in the Seychelles.
• Some Oligarchs are afraid of working with Putin out of fear that they’ll be included in further sanctions.
• Louise Mensch reports about Erik Prince and his Chinese ties. Expect to hear about China more in the coming months.

That’s it for today. I think. I’ll write something this weekend that is a bit more focused. I think it’s time to explain how the Chain of Succession works. Maybe even something on the Justice League.

Take a deep breath this weekend. I don’t know where things go next, but we are living history, and we all need to take a step back, see what is important, and what’s worth fighting for.

Then, get back in the fight. It’s time to save Democracy.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

It’s the end of November. I wonder if the month will end on a quiet note…

NOPE!

Trump Asked Senators to End Russian Investigation

Over the Summer of 2017, Trump repeatedly asked Senators Richard Burr, Mitch McConnell, and Roy Blunt, and others to find a way to swiftly end the Russian Investigation.

This isn’t a “sources say” or “it was told to us”.

RICHARD BURR WENT ON THE FUCKING RECORD!

So did Mitch McConnell and Roy Blunt.

Other Republican Senators also had similar conversations, but none of them went on the record. Bob Corker and Lindsey Graham are likely on that list.

The excuse they gave to cover for Trump was “He didn’t know, he’s new at this.”

Bullshit. Ignorance of the law is no excuse, and he’s in deep shit BECAUSE he asked the Director of the FBI to do the EXACT SAME THING!

This is textbook Obstruction of Justice, at least with corrupt intent.

Here’s the list of people he asked to end the Russian Investigation:

• FBI Director James Comey
• Senator Richard Burr
• Senator Roy Blunt
• Senator Mitch McConnell
• Director of National Intelligence Dan Coates
• NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers
• CIA Director Mike Pompeo

Mercer Funded Project Veritas

The billionaire Mercer family has been funding Project Veritas, in direct violation of the groups filing as a non-political non-profit.

As if any further proof was needed, there is a direct line between James O’Keefe, Donald Trump, Robert Mercer, and Steve Bannon.

Creating propaganda for someone partaking in espionage is itself an extension of espionage, and is a capital offense.

Phillips from PV Attempted to Infiltrate Washington Post for Months

Speaking of Project Veritas, Jaime Phillips tried for months to get dirt on any journalist she could, and attempted to befriend several members of the Washington Post, each under different aliases.

This isn’t just a one-time op, this was an ongoing act of aggression and fraud, and she should be punished accordingly.

White House Leaks Plan to Replace SecState Tillerson with CIA Director Pompeo

Pompeo is a good little sycophant, and this is their attempt to embarrass Rex into quitting.

Erdogan Authorized Iran Gold Scheme

Yep.

Here is a blow by blow of Zarrab’s testimony. It’s a How-To guide on laundering money using gold.

Maddow Clip with 19 Russian Contacts

From Wednesday Night.

Trump Administration Mulls Privatizing Intelligence

Team Trump is floating the idea of using a private company for various Intelligence tasks like counterterrorism efforts, rendition, and covert operations that may fall outside the definition of legal.

In other words, Trump’s personal Secret Police.

Several IC officials said this plan has no chance of getting off the ground.

One piece of the article struck me pretty hard, though.

Amyntor Group is a reclusive company headquartered in Whitefish, Montana, a town of 6,500 residents that recently gained notoriety after a company based there won, then lost, a $300 million contract to rebuild Puerto Rico’s electrical grid. There is no known relationship between the two companies.

Whitefish, Montana. Home of Whitefish Energy and Ryan Zinke.

Old Golf Interview Brings Back Shady Stuff About Trump, Epstein

There is some truly disturbing things in the article, aside from calling a passerby “First Rate Pussy.”

Trump was waiting for his buddy Jeffrey Epstein to show up, and he made some comments about him liking younger girls. He shows up in tow with a girl who is obviously underage, but dressed up to look older.

Nothing happened on the plane with the reporters present, but they did note it was creepy AF.

Epstein has been accused of running a child prostitution ring, and is a convicted sex offender.

From the Archive: Trump and Human Trafficking

Speaking of human trafficking, here is a story that got lost in the noise last year.

Roger Stone’s Time in the Barrel Coming Soon

SPOILER: He was working with the Russians.

Republican Donors Skittish about Giving Donations

Maybe because they can’t get anything to pass?

Scarborough: Trump has Early Stages of Dementia

White House staff told Joe this, which I’m torn about.

On the one hand, dementia is a terrible disease that I’ve witnessed first hand and would only wish on the worst of the worst, like Donald Trump. I used to say no one, but there are some truly evil people in the world, and he’s one of them. The thought of him losing his mind and shitting his pants as his kids ignore him fills me with glee.

On the other, I want him to stay lucid long enough to see his entire world collapse around him, and watch his empire torn down, brick by brick.

Best case scenario, both happen. He keeps his mind long enough to watch everything fall apart, and loses his mind in prison.

That’s it for Thursday. And Friday is looking to be frigging HUGE. Not just a normal news dump, either. The Rumor Mill is a little too happy for a day with a bunch of doom and gloom. They see that much of this is projection.

I’m going to try to get Friday’s post finished on Friday. Not only do I have a lot on my plate this weekend, but I’ve got a feeling I want to see what happens.

EDIT: As of Friday Morning, Mike Flynn is under arrest. More as that develops.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Wednesday. But I’m writing this on Thursday.

Jared Kushner Met With Mueller’s Team About Flynn

It is being reported that earlier this month, Jared Kushner met with the Special Counselor’s team for about 90 minutes. The main focus of the interview was Mike Flynn, and most of the questions looked to see if Jared knew anything that might exonerate him over the December meeting in Trump Tower.

I wonder if this evidence would be presented to a Grand Jury.

Mike Flynn Grand Jury Postponed

Well, this is getting interesting. Mueller suspended a Grand Jury looking into Mike Flynn, immediately after rumors of a plea deal break.

The only reasons to do that are if they are no longer required because there is no more investigation, or so much new evidence came in that the investigators need time to parse through it all.

Either way, it doesn’t look good for Trump.

Donnie Jr. Testified Before House Intelligence Committee Behind Closed Doors

This testimony is mostly about unanswered questions from the June 9 meeting, as well as his links to Julian Assange. Hopefully we’ll get a transcript soon.

Maryland and DC AG’s Get Subpoena Power in Trump Emoluments Lawsuit

This is for one of the three emoluments lawsuits against Trump. Or is it four? I’m losing count.

Reza Zarrab used Rudy Giuliani to negotiate extradition deal

Rudy was Reza’s lawyer when he was first arrested and extradited to the United States. They attempted to negotiate a deal with Turkey for a deal that would send him there.

Reza Zarrab is a money launderer who pled guilty to violating sanctions with Iran, and has ties to Mike Flynn.

Trump Retweeted Anti-Muslim Videos from Britain First, a Right-Wing Fascist Party who Loves Putin

In today’s Outrage Du Jour, Trump retweeted racist videos against Muslims from Britain First, a political party in the U.K. that is extremely racist and fascist.

Of course, last year they posted several articles about how great Vladimir Putin’s regime is, and how great he is.

Those posts were removed from the site recently, but are still available to be seen, if one knows where to look.

Trump is Delusional

It’s an opinion piece, but as more and more people recognize it, the scarier things will feel.

Hatch Act Violation Case Opened Against Kellyanne Conway

The Cryptkeeper’s Wife is under investigation for campaigning for a political candidate from an official position in the White House.

Hopefully this ends poorly for her.

Nearly Half a Million Pro-Repeal FCC Comments Came From Russian Emails

More evidence of Russians screwing with our freedom.

People are getting Robocalled about Derogatory Posts Against Trump

This one is a little creepy, and more aggravating than anything else.

That’s it for today. Things are ramping up in the Russian Investigation, even if it doesn’t look like it. We’re now getting confirmation from the MSM of the Special Counselor and Congress talking to family members. In seven months, there are three confirmed arrests, a plea deal that likely produced at least four indictments, and another plea deal in the works.

Justice is slow, but will be served.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur