Finally. FFS. It’s Friday.

It’s Time. It’s TIME. IT’S TIME. FOR THE NEWS DUMP!

SEALED INDICTMENTS FROM MUELLER

THIS JUST FUCKING HAPPENED!

DANA BOENTE RESIGNS

This is a big deal. The US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia is retiring.

Dana Boente has an interesting story.

Late in 2016, President Obama changed the order of succession for the DOJ, lowering him down the chain. Of course, Trump reversed it, and placed Dana back in his old spot, and somehow interpreted this move as “Obama hates him, so I like him” and left him in his position.

Meanwhile, Grand Juries were convened to look into the Russian investigation, starting with Mike Flynn and Paul Manafort. These started in EDVA. This is where James Comey had at least one Grand Jury.

When Comey was fired, Boente was in the SCIF with Rosenstein when the decision was made to name a Special Counselor. That turned out to be Robert Mueller.

Boente will stay on until his replacement is confirmed by the Senate. But considering that Preet Bharara was fired in March, and replacements are still being interviewed, Dana might be on the job for a while.

One rumor going around is that he will be called as a witness, and because of this, he can’t be a prosecutor on the case. Take that for what you will.

REBEKHA MERCER DIRECTLY IMPLICATED IN SEEKING DNC AND HRC EMAILS FROM WIKILEAKS

Rebekah Mercer, billionaire funder of Cambridge Analytica, was caught asking for mails from Julian Assange.

She was asking Alexander Nix, head of CA, if he could get Wikileaks to release the mails in a particular order.

INTERN FROM CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA LEFT VOTER TARGETING SOFTWARE ONLINE

Don’t leave your incriminating work online! Seriously, this isn’t rocket science.

More interestingly, this targeting software was left unguarded and unencrypted, open for anyone who knew it was there.

SEEKING STOLEN PROPERTY IS A CRIME

Ari Melber reminds us that trying to acquire stolen property is a crime. There have been multiple attempts by the Trump Campaign to get these emails. At this point, if they didn’t collide, it was because they fucked it up so bad the Russians bailed.

WHITEFISH ENERGY CONTRACT IS AS CORRUPT AS IT COMES

Here’s a copy. Nothing says legit for a no-bid deal like a clause that says it can’t be audited or reviewed.

Any judge not completely drunk would invalidate several parts of, if not the whole of the contract.

FEMA, CONGRESS WANTS TO LOOK INTO WHITEFISH ENERGY

FEMA, the Senate, and a couple House Committees want to know how a two man company in Montana won this contract.

This is going to get interesting. The Trump Administration is doing a speed run on every type of scandal in American history. Looks like this is their Blackwater.

SANCTIONS DIVISION AT STATE DEPARTMENT SHUT DOWN BY TILLERSON REORGANIZATION

Can’t enforce sanctions if there isn’t a sanctions department.

Remember, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is one of the few Americans that have won the Russian Medal of Friendship, given to him directly by Vladimir Putin.

PRIVATE PRISON CONVENTION MOVED TO TRUMP RESORT

This comes after the Trump Administration changed the governments stance on using private prisons.

Explain to me how this isn’t a bribe.

JFK FILES RELEASED, HOW TO READ THEM

The New York Times has a good write up on how to read the JFK files that were released.

Start with the files that were not listed before.

JFK STRIPPERS, ORGIES, AND BOUNTIES ON COMMUNISTS

Bring lawyers, guns, and money.

Seriously, there’s some really good shit in here. Orgies with the Rat Pack, for fucks sake.

RUSSIAN PAPER ARMING ITS STAFF

Following even more violence against journalists in Russia, the Editor in Chief of Novaya Gazeta, will arm his staff.

Be safe out there.

SENATOR SASSE SPEAKS OUT AGAINST ROY MOORE

If Ben Sasse doesn’t like you, you’re a dick.

Expect the Moderates in the GOP to start fighting back against the fringes, especially given the other developments today.

TRUMP WANTS TO LIFT GAG ORDER ON FBI INFORMANTS FOR URANIUM ONE, ALSO WANTS ALL EMAILS OF CLINTON’S RELEASED

This is pure distraction. Trump wants to distract from the incoming shitstorm. He’s also trying to make a stink about emails again.

TRUMP ASTROTURFED BON JOVI ON BUFFALO BILLS SALE

Remember when Trump tried to buy the Buffalo Bills?

He worked with Roger Stone, Cohen, and Caputo to screw Jon Bon Jovi out of the sale.

Fuck Trump, he killed the USFL and Spring football.

RUSSIAN TROLL FACTORY MADE A HILARY CLINTON SEX TAPE

This is great for a laugh.

This is what I think of when I think of trolls. Making a sex tape with a black man and a Hilary lookalike is pretty funny and fucked up.

ASSHOLES ATTACKING LAS VEGAS SHOOTING VICTIMS, CLAIMING IT WAS A HOAX

Fuck these type of assholes. I want to feel sorry for them that they don’t know how to think, or might be sick, but going after victims is fucked up.

CATALAN DECLARES INDEPENDENCE, SPAIN TO EXERCISE EMERGENCY POWERS

Catalan has decided to declare their independence from Spain today. In retaliation, Spain will exercise their emergency powers to keep this from happening.

Keep an eye on this. It’s just a potential revolution or civil war about to break loose in Europe.

More chaos. Just like what Putin wants.

HOUSTON TEXANS OWNER BOB McNAIR ON ANTHEM PROTEST: “WE CANT’T HAVE THE INMATES RUNNING THE PRISON.”

Poor choice of words, Bob.

Just, think before you talk.

PLAYER REACTION LED TO WALKOUT

Several players walked out of practice, and might not play on Sunday.

The players have a choice on whether they should play or not. Except Lamar Miller, I’m starting him in Fantasy Football this week.

GOP WANTS TO END RUSSIA INVESTIGATIONS IN CONGRESS

The GOP wants to wrap up the Russian Investigations.

Nothing to see here, no collusion. Ignore the indictments, the SIGINT, and all of the other evidence.

GOP MAY USE BUDGET TRICKS TO END MUELLER WORK

One trick they might try to use to stop the Investigation is to screw with the funding.

Of course, if indictments are in the pipeline, cutting off the investigation could likely lead to an Obstruction of Justice charge.

ORRIN HATCH “MIGHT” RETIRE AT END OF TERM

From the “Water is Wet” Category, Orrin Hatch might retire after his term ends in 2019.

Orrin Hatch, the President Pro Tempre of the Senate, is 83 years old. Rumor has it that his health might be failing, and he might want to retire, but doesn’t want to announce it until things settle down.

By that reasoning, he’ll run for 22 more terms.

IMPEACHMENT ADS ON FOX & FRIENDS

This is perfect. Run ads calling for Trump’s Impeachment on Fox & Friends, while he’s watching.

Yes, the tiny handed racist blew a fucking gasket.

VESELNITSKAYA SHARED KREMLIN TALKING POINTS AT JUNE 9 MEETING

Of course.

And, of course she denied ever working with the Kremlin.

YURI CHAIKA WORKING WITH VESELNITSKAYA

The Crown Prosecutor, or Prosecutor General of Russia.

He is known as the King of Kompromat. He supplied this information on Hilary Clinton to Veselnitskaya, who offered it to Team Trump.

GETTING A FISA WARRANT IS HARD

Really Fucking Hard.

So, the fact that at least two people of interest, Carter Page and Paul Manafort were under a warrant, should show how serious shit is.

GORKA CALLS FOR CLINTON EXECUTION ON SEAN HANNITY

How does a Nazi get any work as an expert on National Security interviews?

Get ready for shit to fly against Gorka and Hannity.

CYPRUS TRIES TO DEFEND ITSELF AGAINST MONEY LAUNDERING ACCUSATIONS FROM EUROPEAN UNION

Cyprus is trying to play off it’s role in Russian Money Laundering scandals.

Remember, Paul Manafort moved Oleg Deripaska’s money through the Bank of Cyprus, under the management of Wilbur Ross at the time.

FEINSTEIN DEMANDS WHITE HOUSE HAND OVER ALL INFORMATION ON COMEY AND RUSSIA

Diane Feinstein has sent a letter on behalf of the Senate Judiciary Committee, demanding information from the White House in its role in the Jim Comey firing.

Let’s add Cambridge Analytica, Michael Cohen, Twitter, and Facebook to the list of people and groups getting nasyygrams today.

PUERTO RICO DEATH TOLL SHOULD BE AT LEAST 911

Close to 1,000 people have died of “natural causes” since Hurricane Maria. But without a coroner to sign off on the source of the deaths, they aren’t “officially” dead due to the Hurricane.

This is just a clusterfuck of a quagmire of a disaster.

WAPO OPINION PIECE: THE GOP BATTLE TACTICS ARE THOSE OF AN 8 YEAR OLD

“I know you are, but what am I?”

If this is the official battle tactic of the Republican Party, then it is time to change how we work together.

WASHINGTON FREE BEACON FUNDED STEELE DOSSIER BEFORE THE CLINTON CAMPAIGN

The Washington Free Beacon is a Conservative group and publication.

According to Byron York, Christopher Steele wasn’t involved until after the DNC started paying the bills, but they did hire Fusion GPS.

Paul Singer. Need to look into that name, and who commissioned him.

TRUMP LEANING TOWARDS JEROME POWELL AS NEXT HEAD OF US CENTRAL BANK

This just came in from Reuters. Powell is a current Governor of the Federal Reserve.

That’s it for today. 34 stories, and I might have left a couple off. I think I might write something fun this weekend, like how Trump will fuck up the Turkey Pardon, or the origin story of the Justice League.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Thursday.

I could never get the hang of Thursdays.

TWITTER KICKS RT AND SPUTNIK OFF OF THEIR AD PLATFORM.  RT RESPONDS WITH INCRIMINATING THREATS.

Get the popcorn, people, shit’s bout to get real interesting.  Twitter made the decision earlier today to remove all ads from RT, formerly Russia Today, and Sputnik, from their platform, citing their actions in trying to influence the 2016 election.  They said that they would take the money they received for that and donate it to an external group that works on political advocacy in the modern age.

Here’s Twitter’s press release on the actions.

The following is a screenshot from @M_Simonyan, the head of RT.  I was going to post the link, but I don’t trust that the link would still work, and I don’t want to risk anyone to any weird spyware that RT might try to link to.

If true, this is some pretty damning stuff, and Russia is about to go scorched earth on this.  BTW, Scorched Earth comes the old Russian military tactic of retreating, and burning everything in their wake to the ground to prevent their enemies from using Russian resources against them.  Then, they wait for their enemies to freeze to death.  This is how they stopped Napoleon and Hitler.

Twitter is scheduled to meet with the Senate Intelligence Committee next week in an open hearing, along with Facebook and Google.

TRUMP CAMPAIGN TRYING TO DISTANCE THEMSELVES FROM CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA.

Remember earlier this year when Mike Flynn’s connections to Russia and Turkey came out, and the Trump White House tried to minimize his role?

How about when they said that Paul Manafort, the former campaign chairman, played only a “minor role” after his connections to Oleg Deripaska came to light?

Add Cambridge Analytica to the list.

The data firm, funded by the Mercers with connections to Michael Flynn, Steve Bannon, Brad Pascale, Chuck Johnson, Facebook, Twitter, and Jared Kushner, “played a minor role in the campaign.”

This is like trying to photoshop a brother-in-law out of the wedding photos after finding out that they’re wanted for running a prostitution ring.

I’m waiting for the day that Jared and Ivanka get indicted, and Trump acts like he doesn’t recognize them. And not because of dementia, either.

FORMER SENATOR COBURN JOINS THE MODERATES SPEAKING OUT AGAINST TRUMP.

Tom Coburn, a doctor and former Senator from Oklahoma, went on the record by saying that Trump has a personality disorder.

Tom Coburn does not have a sense of humor, according to “Giant of the Senate” by Al Franken.  So, when Tom Coburn says that someone is nuts, they’re nuts.

MILITARY OFFICERS OVERWHELMINGLY DO NOT SUPPORT TRUMP.

According to the Military Times, most officers do not support, nor approve of Donald Trump’s actions.  These are not the rank and file soldiers, but the officers.  The ones in charge, that make the orders.

In this poll, they also listed White Supremacy as the largest threat to the nation’s security, ahead of islamic terrorism.  Those two pieces seem to go hand in hand.

NBC WOULD LIKE TO REMIND EVERYONE THAT RUSSIA SURE AS HELL IS STILL A THING.

NBC would like to remind you that Russia is still kind of a thing.

PUERTO RICO GOVERNOR CALLS FOR INVESTIGATION INTO WHITEFISH ENERGY.

Whitefish Energy, the two man company from Ryan Zinke’s hometown, is under scrutiny for winning the contract to rebuild Puerto Rico’s electrical grid, and their Governor wants to know why they won this massive contract.

Meanwhile, Tesla just electrified a Children’s Hospital on the island using panels and batteries.

WGBH BOSTON REPORTS THAT MUELLER WILL ‘MAKE MOVES BEFORE THANKSGIVING’.

Juliette Kayheem of WGBH Boston and PBS, reports that there is an increased buzz surrounding the investigation into the White House, and that she predicts that Mueller and his team will announce something before Thanksgiving, and that it’s bigger than just Obstruction of Justice.

I’m not sure if this is completely accurate, but here’s what I think…

Mueller isn’t going to anything unless Congress is in session.  We are past political expediency and we’re into National Security territory.  There have been rumors for months that the MSM has Donald Trump on tape working with the Russians, but haven’t released it due to his request.  When he drops the mic, things are going to move fast.

Assuming that he comes back with anything more substantial than a report or a recommendation, Congress will likely briefed first, in a closed session, and led to the some of the new SCIFs (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) that they’ve been building in the Capitol building for the last few months.  There, they’ll be shown the evidence that Trump and his team committed espionage, if not outright treason, to win the election, as well as his history of financial and sexual crimes, and those of this associates.

After Congress is briefed, there will be some kind of announcement of indictments from Mueller, followed shortly by Congress pushing forward Articles of Impeachment, based off of those indictments.

If Mueller announces something outside of a Congressional session, it’s either because they can’t be trusted to do their job, or he doesn’t have anything.

Congress goes on Thanksgiving holiday November 20, and Winter break on December 18.

GA06 VOTING SERVER WIPED AFTER LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST STATE FOR USE OF ANTIQUATED VOTING MACHINES THAT ARE SUSCEPTIBLE TO HACKING.

This is pretty awkward.  Following a lawsuit from the Unhack the Vote team looking into the veracity of the voting machines, the server that contained the voting record was wiped clean, and they can’t find any backups.

What the actual fuck?

This is the kind of screw-up that puts people in jail.  Deleting data that is involved in a lawsuit is destruction of evidence, possibly obstruction of justice if it were done to cover up a crime.

The reason for the lawsuit was twofold.  First, the special election was performed using voting machines that were previously hacked at Defcon, then purchased on eBay.  There was worry that there could have been some residual code left on them from the hackers if they weren’t properly wiped.  Second, they discovered some interesting trends that didn’t appear until after the election.  The vote totals were nearly opposite of the early voting and absentee ballots.  A 60/40 split came in supporting the Democratic challenger in the early voting, but the machines went about 60/40 for the Republican.  This didn’t match normal results.  That part of the country tends to skew Republican in early voting, and more Democratic on election day.

Unless we’re all taking crazy pills and we’re in Bizarro Land.  Then again, it is 2017.

INTERPOL INFORMS RUSSIA THAT IT WILL NO LONGER ACCEPT ANY WARRANTS FROM THEM IN REGARDS TO BILL BROWDER.

That’s it for today.  Tomorrow will be a crazy News Dump Friday.  We’ll get some stuff about the Steele Dossier, Cambridge Analytica, Twitter, and the release of the JFK files.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

HSIOW. Holy Shit, It’s Only Wednesday.

KASPERSKY LABS GETS HANDS ON NSA SOFTWARE FROM US PC, SAYS IT WAS AN ACCIDENT

Here’s another reminder.  IF YOU HAVE KASPERSKY LABS ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE INSTALLED, GET RID OF THAT SHIT NOW!!!

They ended up with copies of NSA software in their system.

That ain’t right.  That ain’t even close to right.  That’s across the river from right.  Ain’t nowhere near right.

Their “excuse” is that they accidentally uploaded them.  But they deleted them right away, so no bad.

Right?

Kaspersky has some serious ties with the Russian FSB, their main Intelligence group.  Several Kaspersky employees were arrested last year for espionage against Russia, who were believed to have been spies for the U.S., U.K., Germany, and France, among others.

It’s also been heavily speculated on the Rumor Mill that Edward Snowden has been working with them since he fled the United States and was granted asylum in Russia.

HEAD OF CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA TRIED TO GET HRC EMAILS FROM JULIAN ASSANGE

Alexander Nix, head of Cambridge Analytica, the data company behind the demographic microtargeting of voters during the 2016 election, reached out to Julian Assange of Wikileaks in an attempt to get Hilary Clinton’s missing emails.  This is not the first story of someone “outside” the campaign tried to get these mails.  Peter Smith, of Arkansas Troopergate Fame from the 90’s also tried, and even set up an LLC with the tacit acknowledgment that this was condoned by Mike Flynn, KellyAnne Conway, and others in the campaign.This story about Barbara Leeden, an aide to both Mike Flynn and Chuck Grassley, came out less than two weeks ago.

After the article was published, the author received comment from Julian Assange, and he said that he was contacted by Nix, but did not hand any information over.  Of course, we always believe the paragon of virtue that he is.

If this were Reddit, that last sentence would have a /s after it to indicate sarcasm.  Personally, I prefer using hypertags for sarcasm, like <Sarcasm> and </Sarcasm>, but then again, I grew up having to actually write code to make programs work.

MANAFORT IS MANAFUCKED, PART 395

Yep. Another article on how Manafort is Manafucked.  It’s not every day that the former Director of the FBI tells you that you’re about to be indicted.  Or that a fuckton of cash from an Oligarch on the Magnitsky Sanctions list connects you, them, and multiple banks under investigation for money laundering, including one which was partly owned by a member of the Cabinet. (Wilbur Ross, former number 2 at the Bank of Cyprus).

Plus, the Ukrainians want him for war crimes.  Part of me wants to say that they would at least have a trial before his public execution, but that’s me being optimistic.

MICHEAL COHEN MADE A LOT OF MONEY ON SHADY REAL ESTATE DEALS

Who would have thought that Michael Cohen read my Article on Money Laundering, traveled back in time, and followed it like a how-to guide?

Oh, he didn’t time travel?  He’s just a slimy, criminal who did this on his own?  That makes more sense.

Michael Cohen is Trump’s personal lawyer.  He orchestrated 4 cash real estate deals with Herbert Chaves of the Chaves and Perlowitz Law Firm on 4 properties Cohen owned, which cost him about $2 million each.  Cohen sold them on deals to Chaves for LLC’s with hidden partners for many times what they were appraised at, around $10 million each.

I need to find out if there was ever a lawsuit between these two.  Not that I don’t think something shady happened, but lawsuits can be used as a way to launder money.  I’m thinking Chaves might sue Cohen, Cohen puts money into an escrow account, then they settle out of court for an undisclosed sum.  That money, after sitting in escrow, goes to Chaves, who then takes his cut and sends it to his clients.

CONGRESS CUTS OFF ROHRBACHER’S TRAVEL ACCOUNT

This is from a couple days, but it got lost in the shuffle.  Congress has cut off funding for Dana Rohrbacher’s trips under fear that he may be committing espionage.  He has been the most outspoken supporter of Putin and Russia in Washington, and that includes the Russian Embassy.  This man suggested that Alaska be returned to Russia, if they voted to leave.

His latest stunt was to fly to London and meet with Julian Assange with Chuck Johnson, and is trying to organize a pardon for Assange in exchange for his “proof” that Wikileaks did not receive the DNC emails from the Russians.

As of this writing, Assange is still sitting in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid prosecution by any of a dozen countries for crimes ranging from sexual assault to espionage.

HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE IS A CLUSTERFUCK

There are 13 Republican Members of the HIC. Only 3 are showing up to the hearings.  Meanwhile, they would rather keep investigating Hilary Clinton instead of asking “Did the President commit Treason and a bunch of other illegal stuff?”

TRUMP’S TWITTER FOLLOWERS ARE MOSTLY NON-EXISTENT

Here’s an article with a breakdown of how few people actually follow Donald Trump on Twitter.  It’s a great breakdown of the various numbers and stats, but I included quite possibly the most important part.

Key Trump follower figures:

    21.2 percent: Trump followers who have tweeted five times or fewer

    25.3 to 25.5 percent: Trump followers who have never tweeted

    33 percent: Trump followers that are “egg accounts”

    37.7 percent: Trump followers who created Twitter accounts since the election

    46 percent: Trump followers who haven’t tweeted in the past year

    56.7 percent: Trump followers who created accounts since candidacy announcement

    66 percent: Trump followers who haven’t tweeted in the past 90 days

    74 percent: Trump followers with fewer than 50 followers

Trump’s following also includes 13.7 million “egg accounts,” or inactive accounts with no profile pictures—a clear indication of a bot, or fake follower, Kharly Stauber, SocialRank’s head of content and accounts, told the Daily Dot. The number of these kinds of accounts following him has increased by 2.2 million over the past two months. This summer, SocialRank found that only 11.1 million people following Trump as of September were active.

Stripped away of the egg accounts, Trump is left with roughly 27.5 million followers, a far cry from the 41.1 million he boasted as of Tuesday evening. When you factor in the number of accounts that have not tweeted in the past year—18.9 million, according to SocialRank—and the 27.1 million accounts that have not shared content in the past 90 days, the number of active and engaged followers of @realDonaldTrump plummets considerably.

Both Social Rank and Trump or False compiled their data as of early October.

Let’s do the math.  41.1 million followers.  13.4 million of them are likely bots.  That leaves approximately 27.5 million followers.  Out of those, 27.1 million have not shared any content in the last 3 months.

That leaves 400,000 active users.  Out of 41.4 million.  Or, 0.966% of his users are involved.  Less than 1 percent.

Another stat was the breakdown of number of tweets by user.  Almost 60% of all of Trump’s followers have fewer than 20 tweets in their history.  20 tweets!  I’ve done more than that in an hour.  I can punch out 20 likes, retweets, quotes, and reply tweets during a good coffee break.  Hell, I think I’ve insulted Trump to his account more than 20 times.  One of my bonus goals on Twitter is to get blocked by Donald Trump, without getting banned.

Anyway, most of his followers aren’t real people.

BILL BROWDER, CANADA, RUSSIA, INTERPOL, AND ISIS

Canada gave Russia a middle finger yesterday when they told Interpol that they’ll decide who can or can’t enter Canada, not Russia.

Here’s the short version.  Bill Browder, the investment banker turned political activist behind the Magnitsky Act, has an Interpol warrant issued for his arrest by the Russians.  They claim that Browder killed Sergei Magnitsky.  While he was exiled from the country and Sergei was in a Russian Prison.

Last year, while the rest of the world was distracted by the Trump Shitshow, the Interpol leadership body was taken over by Russians and Chinese members.  So far this year, both of those countries have abused this by issuing Red Notices on their critics outside of their borders.  A Red Notice is a type of arrest warrant issued by Interpol.

This is the fifth time since 2010 that Russia has tried to use Interpol to arrest Bill Browder.  The previous four times, the warrants were dismissed within a couple days as being politically motivated, but this time, it’s been in the system for over a week.

JEFF SESSIONS AND THE BIRMINGHAM COAL BRIBERY CASE

Alabama is weird.  There’s been an ongoing scandal down there that’s already taken down a politician or two.  A coal company has been fighting against having to clean up the North Birmingham area, which they screwed up, and they were caught bribing several state officials.  This case should be going to Federal Court.

One of the people that this coal company donated money to is Jeff Sessions, the Attorney General who will get to decide whether or not to bring this case to court.

Can you say “Conflict of Interest”?

That’s it for today.  At least, that’s all I pulled together for the day.  The rest of the news was catching up on stories from the last couple of days, like the HRC paying for part of the Steele Dossier, the Niger Ambush, or that the Nimitz Carrier Group is now in the Pacific along with the Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Regan Carrier Groups.  North Korea is still talking about doing a nuclear test over the Pacific Ocean.  I don’t know how this ends without being  a complete and total cock-up.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Thank you, and have a good one