Tag: Media

Daily Check-In 01/31/2019

Thursday, January 31, 2019

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

The Blocked Calls

From the ABC Story:

Investigators on the Senate Intelligence Committee have learned the identities of three blocked phone calls with Donald Trump Jr. just before and after the now-infamous Trump Tower meeting on June 9, 2016, three sources familiar with the calls told ABC News.

The calls to blocked numbers, which came on June 6, and after the meeting on June 9, were between Trump Jr.’s cell phone and two family friends — NASCAR CEO Brian France and real estate developer Howard Lorber, according to the sources.

Both men have close ties to President Donald Trump and actively supported his campaign during the 2016 election.

Trump gloated about the news in a late-night tweet on Thursday, saying the call were “conclusively found NOT to be made to me.”

Interesting.  According to this, the two people who Donnie Jr. talked to from blocked numbers were the man who is single handedly destroying NASCAR and Howard Lorber. Who is Howard Lorber?  This is from the Washington Post:

Businessman and investor Howard Lorber already donated $100,000 to the Trump Victory fund, has been named as one of Trump’s “best friends” and even appeared once on “The Apprentice.” He is also president and chief executive of the Vector Group, a holding company that has various business interests in Russia. In 1996, Lorber brought Trump to Moscow to look for opportunities for Trump to lend his famous name to development projects there.

“Howard has major investments in Russia,” Trump toldRussian politician Alexander Ivanovich Lebed after his trip to Moscow with Lorber, according to a 1997 profile of Trump in the New Yorker. “See, they don’t know you,” Trump told Lorber. “With all that investment, they don’t know you. Trump they know.”

At that time, Trump and Lorber were discussing Trump building a huge luxury residential tower in Moscow as part of a project owned by a subsidiary of Lorber’s firm. The project never took off, but it was only one in a long line of projects Trump tried to start in Russia during his string of visits there dating back to the time of the Soviet Union.

Interesting.  According to this report (which I’m taking with a grain of salt) the calls were made to a real estate developer and investor who played a major role in at least two previous attempts to build Trump Tower Moscow.  Remember, Trump tried at least 4 times to build a tower in Moscow.

  1. Following his trip to Moscow in 1987.
  2. In the late 90’s.
  3. In the late 2000’s through to 2013.
  4. From 2013 until 2016.

Lorber was attached to at least the second and third attempts, and if he’s calling up Jr. right before and after the June 9th meeting.  What’s more interesting, and will need to be sussed out, is where was Lorber during this call.  We know that he was in Trump Tower the day before along with other rich guys doing some fundraising stuff.  It wouldn’t be a stretch of the imagination to think that Trump asked Lorber to do him a favor and call Jr. right before the meeting took place.  Hell, it was 2016.  There’s this thing called call forwarding.  Lorber could have forwarded Trump on directly, given a play by play, or relayed some messages.

Besides, as Steve Bannon said in ‘Fire & Fury’, “The chance that Don. Jr did not walk these Jumos up to his father’s office on the 26th floor is zero”.

Roger Stone

 

NRA

 

Clearances

 

 

Incoming!!!

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

 

SHUTDOWN & IMMIGRATION

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET A.K.A INDIVIDUAL-1

New York Times Interview

 

A Lack of Intelligence

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

CONGRESS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

RIGHT WING TERRORISM & WHITE NATIONALISM

 

SCOTUS & COURTS

 

#METOO & WOMEN’S RIGHTS

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR, HEALTH CARE, & ECONOMY

 

STUDENT ISSUES

This hurts.  I don’t like to talk about myself that much here, but I went to AIP for my undergrad back in the 2000’s.  It’s where I met my wife, and where I made a lot of lifelong friends.  It was also a glorified diploma mill and for-profit school that didn’t give a flying rat’s ass about how much a student learned or how well they performed or what their career prospects actually were, as long as the school made money.  Back during my time the school was owned by EDMC, one of the poster children for the abuses performed by for-profit schools.  I could probably write a book about the shady tactics they used to get students to join, but one trick in particular was lying about prospective incomes for the graduates.

During my sales pitch, I was shown a series of salaries that while not earth shattering, were at least respectable, especially given the price tag of the school.  That helped sway me to enroll there instead of trying to apply at another university.  Fast forward three years to my last quarter, and a different “career adviser” came into a class and showed new salary numbers that were 20-30% lower across the board, and capped this off with a speech along the lines of “you’re screwed if you don’t have at least two internships under your belt.”  This bitch was saying this to a room full of students about to graduate in two weeks.  There was almost a riot.  I’ve been mad before, but this was one of those rare times in my life where I was “Choke a bitch in front of 30 witnesses” mad.  And I hate using the word bitch in a derogatory way against a woman, but this bitch deserved it.  Last I heard, she was fired after being the target of some investigations into the school’s admissions practices.

I’m sad, but also pissed off and relieved, too.  Sad because a major part of my past is gone.  Pissed off that a bunch of hedge fund managers ran a once proud school into the ground, and relieved that my kids won’t go there and repeat my mistakes.

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

THIS IS ENOUGH TO MURDER 37 MILLION PEOPLE. THE ENTIRE POPULATIONS OF METRO NEW YORK, LOS ANGELES, AND WASHINGTON. 😡

COMBINED WITH THE PHILADELPHIA BUST, THIS WOULD ALSO KILL EVERYONE IN CHICAGO AND HOUSTON.

Add it to the Nebraska Fentanyl bust, and you murder all of Dallas, San Francisco, Boston, and St. Louis.

We are at war with the global Mob and several enemy nation-states. This is bioweapon lethality on the level of nuclear weapons, with the worst-case nuclear scenario death tolls. WAKE UP AND ACT LIKE WE’RE AT WAR. BECAUSE THESE PEOPLE WANT YOUR KIDS DEAD. AND YOU.

AND STOP FUCKING PUTTING THEIR AGENTS ON TELEVISION. THANKS.

 

 

PRIESTS & RELIGION

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

Last year, the Trump admin got caught suppressing a federal study showing that two toxic chemicals were present at much higher levels in our drinking water than previously thought. Now, the Trump admin is refusing to regulate those chemicals.

My latest…

Trump team is trying to keep toxic chemicals in our drinking water The administration is refusing to protect Americans from cancer-causing chemicals in the nation’s water supply. shareblue.com       

The reason they’re refusing to regulate the two chemicals (PFOA & PFOS) under the Safe Drinking Water Act? Because corporations like 3M, as well as the Defense Department, would be on the hook for billions of dollars in cleanup efforts.

i.e., the Trump administration is putting industry interests and corporate profits over the health & safety of an estimated 110 million Americans who are at risk of being exposed to drinking water contaminated with toxic chemicals.

Here’s where the scandal started, when the Trump administration got caught covering up a major federal study on toxic chemicals in our drinking water because they wanted to avoid a “public relations nightmare.”

New emails reveal Trump’s EPA buried major toxic drinking water study The White House and the EPA suppressed a report showing dangerous levels of toxic chemicals in the U.S. water supply because they feared it would cause a ‘public relations nightmare,’ according to… shareblue.com       

 

ELECTIONS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Arizona Sen. Martha McSally, whose fundraising practices have drawn scrutiny in the past, appears to have accepted more than $270,000 in excessive campaign contributions during the recent midterm campaign, according to the Federal Election Commission.

Federal candidates can collect $2,700 from a single donor during a primary election, followed by an additional $2,700 from the same person during the general election.

But the federal agency flagged dozens of contributions to McSally from more than 60 donors that appear to exceed those limits, including one who cut a $10,000 check during the general election alone, according to an analysis of FEC records. The agency said in a letter on Monday that McSally has until early March to correct any record-keeping issues, or refund the money.

While many campaigns regularly cut refund checks when donors give too much, a spokesman for McSally said she can’t control how much her supporters give. He said that her campaign is reviewing the matter.

 

THINKING AHEAD

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

Oh hey, I told you this would be more interesting. Particularly Lorber and his relationship with Trump + Russians. Lorber leads to more RU. So why would Jr call a business partner who is a family tie to RU Business, involved in Trump Tower Moscow plans at one point, and getting RU to invest in Trump, during all this meeting with the RU about “adoptions” stuff? (Its an earlier iteration of Trump Tower Moscow) One last thing, Lorber was at Trump tower the day before(along with some other rich folks) as Trump was trying to raise funds. So we still don’t know the content of the calls obviously, but I imagine the cover will be “It was about fundraising”

 

 

 

That’s it for Thursday.  I’m not sure what’s going to happen on Friday, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we get something weird.  Why?  It’s Friday, that’s why.  Weird shit always happens on a Friday.

If I hear anything else about those sealed dockets from DC, I’ll keep updating.  They could be anything, but they could be something too.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 01/30/2019

Daily Check-In 08/13/2018Wednesday, January 30, 2019

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Deza and Stolen Docs

In October 2018, one or more actors made statements claiming to have a stolen copy of discovery produced by the government in this case. The subsequent investigation has revealed that certain non-sensitive discovery materials in the defense’s possession appear to have been altered and disseminated as part of a disinformation campaign aimed (apparently) at discrediting ongoing investigations into Russian interference in the U.S. political system. These facts establish a use of the non-sensitive discovery in this case in a manner inconsistent with the terms of the protective order and demonstrate the risks of permitting sensitive discovery to reside outside the confines of the United States.

…

In short, Mueller is arguing that if non-sensitive information has been used in attempts to discredit his investigation, how much worse would things be if sensitive information was shared that “identifies sources, methods, and techniques used to identify the foreign actors behind these interference operations.”

“Unwarranted disclosure of that information overseas, in a country adverse to this litigation, would allow that country and actors in that country to learn of these techniques and adjust their conduct, thus undermining U.S. national security interests, including investigations into the conduct of those foreign actors,” he said, noting that there is no incentive for these foreign actors not to act in bad faith.

“The Court would have no ability to enforce compliance with the other provisions in the protective order by the ‘officers and employees of Concord Management and Consulting LLC’ because those individuals are not subject to the jurisdiction of the Courts,” Mueller said. “And Concord’s proposed order would apply to every piece of sensitive discovery in the case, including sensitive discovery containing personal identifying information and sensitive discovery implicating national security interests.”

I can’t say that I’m completely surprised by this development, but holy shit.  This is a big development, and shows just some of the lengths that the Russians are willing to go to to derail Mueller.

Concord Management is the company indicted alongside the IRA and Russian Troll Fram. (The Indicted). The company was the only entity from that indictment that responded in court, and they proceeded to go nuts, asking for everything from all work the CIA has ever done to trying to get the case thrown out because reasons.

Something that’s been bandied back and forth in these legal fights was Concord’s lawyers at Reed Smith argued that all evidence should be given to their client as part of discovery.  Remember that the Discovery Process is the part of a legal battle where the defense gets to view the evidence against them and build a defense.  Earlier this year, Mueller gave Concord’s lawyers access to non-sensitive documents and evidence.  Shortly thereafter, someone with a Russian IP address contacted a reporter and told them they had the Mueller documents.  The reporter forwarded that info to Mueller’s team, and what they saw was shocking.  The link led to a “unique folder structure” not used by Mueller’s team but known to them.  The documents inside were mostly junk files, with some stuff edited to make it look like Mueller had nothing.

There’s only two ways that the troll got their hands on this info.

  1. Reed Smith gave them direct access.
  2. Reed Smith gave Concord direct access, and Concord gave the troll access.

Either way, someone’s in some serious trouble.

 

Stone

 

Meeting Putin

 

NRA

From TDB:

A former NRA president hoped to win access to Vladimir Putin on a trip to Moscow, according to an email from one of the trip’s organizers. That organizer, Republican operative Paul Erickson, also said the trip could have “enormous diplomatic consequences.” The email, sent in November 2015 and reviewed by The Daily Beast, came just months before the Kremlin’s election meddling went into full gear.

In the email, Erickson wrote that an official with the Russian Central Bank had made a tantalizing, though tentative, offer to former NRA president David Keene: an interview for his newspaper with Russian President Vladimir Putin. At the time, Keene was the opinion editor for The Washington Times, a conservative newspaper. He had previously helmed the NRA, and he maintained close ties with its top officials. And he was one of the small group of people on the trip.

From the ABC article:

The December 2015 trip, which involved meetings with senior Kremlin officials, has attracted increased scrutiny in the wake of the arrest and guilty plea of gun rights activist and alleged Russian agent Maria Butina, who was involved in planning the trip. After months of silence on the matter, the NRA’s outside counsel William Brewer told The New York Times that NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre “was opposed to the trip” and even prohibited staff members from joining the delegation out of concern that it would be perceived as officially sanctioned.

Emails sent by NRA officials before the trip, as well as photos taken during the visit, offer greater detail about the organization’s role in arranging the excursion.

In one email, an NRA employee appears to help Butina make travel arrangements for a delegation that included former NRA president David Keene, future NRA president Pete Brownell, NRA fundraiser Joe Gregory, NRA benefactor Dr. Arnold Goldschlager and his daughter Hilary, Outdoor Channel CEO Jim Liberatore, and prominent NRA advocate and Trump campaign surrogate David Clarke, then the sheriff of Milwaukee County.

So, we have the former President of the NRA trying to gain access to Vladimir Putin, and a group of NRA bigwigs going on a trip to Moscow during a presidential campaign.  The same campaign where they spent unprecedented amounts of money for the GOP after they moved to a Pro-Russian stance.

 

Deripaska

 

WikiLeaks

 

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

 

SHUTDOWN & IMMIGRATION

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET A.K.A INDIVIDUAL-1

Putin

 

Biglyest Brain

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

CONGRESS & ELECTIONS

 

Voting Rights

Once again, the turtle says the quiet part out loud.

If your only defense against making it easier for people to vote is that they would vote against you, you are the problem.

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

RIGHT WING TERRORISM & WHITE NATIONALISM

 

SCOTUS & COURTS

 

#METOO & WOMEN’S RIGHTS

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

Apple and Facebook have never gotten along, but this ups their acrimony to a whole new level.

Facebook used their internal development certificates to push a tracking app aimed at teenagers to trick them into spending money.  This is a blatant violation of the Apple Store guidelines and the Apple Development rules.  In response, Apple turned off Facebook’s ability to distribute and ultimately develop iOS applications.  This shuts down their in development apps and internal beta apps.

I don’t know how much longer this will go on, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see this go either way.  They could agree to a quick fix, or they could escalate this into a full-scale digital war where Apple removes all of Facebook’s apps from their devices.  It shouldn’t get that far, but at this point in the timeline, I wouldn’t be surprised either way.

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR, HEALTH CARE, & ECONOMY

 

Eat the Rich

 

The Foxconn Con

This is what happens when we give public money to large corporations: they fuck us.  Wisconsin already gave Foxconn $4 billion, and they won’t see a penny of that. That could have gone to infrastructure, schools, pension funds, health care, or to developing the local economy, but now it’s wasted.

Get ready to hear a whole bunch of Wisconsin GOP members claiming that they have to cut social programs because of this.

 

STUDENT ISSUES

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS & RELIGION

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

THINKING AHEAD

 

Schutlz

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Wednesday.  Thursday’s looking like it’ll be a weird one.  Ben Carson has a photo op with someone he shouldn’t, we see more stuff about the NRA trip to Moscow in 2015, and the class war continues.

Thursday might be a little short or different.  It’s still very cold here, and the kids are sick.  That makes it difficult to spend as much time researching as I’d normally spend.  I’ll have something up, but not sure how in-depth it will be.

I’d like to write a story about this emerging battle between the billionaire class and the progressives.  I want to stay neutral in any story about those groups, but it’s very hard for me to do so.  I grew up in the world of Reagan, where the rich were treated as special and the poor as useless.  I’ll go into more detail later on, but I’m worried that anything I write about that subject will be tainted by bias.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 01/29/2019

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Trump Met With Putin…Again

A Kremlin official said today that, despite what the WH claimed, Trump & Putin had a sit-down meeting at the G-20 summit, during which they discussed Syria policy. Three weeks after G-20, Trump abruptly ordered US troops to withdraw from Syria. my latest

Context of the G-20 summit: -Trump & Putin were scheduled to meet -Cohen reveals damning new details about Trump Tower Moscow deal -Trump cancels Putin meeting -Kremlin refuses to accept cancellation -WH goes on the record saying no meetings, even pull-asides, are scheduled. 1/

Caroline Orr Retweeted Caroline Orr

So the Kremlin got the White House to go on the record saying there were no scheduled pull asides between Trump & Putin at G-20. And then two months later, the Kremlin leaks details of a sit-down meeting between Trump & Putin. 2/

Caroline Orr @RVAwonk

Context of the G-20 summit: -Trump & Putin were scheduled to meet -Cohen reveals damning new details about Trump Tower Moscow deal…

Putin was accompanied by a translator when he met with Trump after a dinner at the G-20 summit. Trump was accompanied by… Melania. “The four of them sat at a table and were among the last to leave,” 3/

It really looks like a strategic move by the Kremlin to get the White House to go on the record denying any plans for a G-20 meeting. Also strategic: Leaking details of the meeting just as the Trump admin takes a position on Venezuela that the Kremlin really doesn’t like. 4/

Was Trump’s decision to pull troops out of Syria part of a deal he discussed with Putin at G-20? Did Trump make any promises about Venezuela during that meeting? We have no idea. Trump didn’t bring a note-taker, translator, or anyone from his administration to the meeting. 5/

What we *do* know: Putin just fired a warning shot at Trump to remind him that he has receipts from all of their encounters, and he’s not afraid to use them. i.e., Trump is compromised. None of us know what else Putin is holding over Trump’s head. We just know there’s more. 6/

No, this wasn’t about G20 2017, or the Helsinki Meeting.  This happened during the G20 2018. (Daily Check-In 11/30/2018). Remember how there was no meeting planned between the two of them?  Looks like they met and talked.  Only Trump, Melania, Putin,  and Putin’s translator.

No Americans were present.  No members of the United States Government.  Just Trump and his handler.

What did they discuss? We may never truly find out. What instructions did Putin give Trump?  Let’s look at the timeline of events to find out.

  • Trump ramps up his rhetoric on shutting down the government.
  • Trump announces that the U.S. is pulling out of Syria and Afghanistan.
  • Word circulates that Trump wants to pull out of NATO.
  • He then removes sanctions on Oleg Deripaska, giving him a deal sweeter than Sweet Tea.
  • Reports come out about Trump going to ridiculous lengths to hide what he talked about with Putin.
  • U.S begins talks with the Taliban.
  • Trump declares victory over ISIS.
  • ISIS kills more U.S. troops in Syria.
  • U.S. Intel announces that Russia and China are already plotting to interfere in the 2020 election.
  • Trump once again attacks the Intel Community, claiming he knows more than they do.

Considering how far he’s gone to keep this meeting off the books, and that this isn’t the first time he’s done this, there are only one logical conclusion:

Donald Trump, the President of the United States, is an Asset of the Russian Federation, and is being used to forward their goals at the expense of the United States.

 

Roger Stone

Speaking of traitors who deserve to hang for their crimes, Roger Stone was arraigned.  As expected, he pleaded not guilty to the seven felonies he’s been charged with.  Also not surprising are his attempts to scream about how poorly he’s been treated, how this is a vast conspiracy, blah blah blah.

Remember, this fucktard recently lost a lawsuit and was forced to issue several apologies for lying on Infowars. (Daily Check-In 12/18/2018).  Why anyone would put him on the air and expect anything less than a lie is either an idiot or corrupted.

 

Here is a list of companies that do not fit the qualifications to be fighting Mueller subpoena battle: -Rosneft -VTB -Sberbank -Deutsche Bank -Bank of Cyprus -Gazprom

You can add Alfa Bank to this list as well. The company must: -Be WHOLLY owned by a foreign government -Have US office(s)

Qatar Investment Authority certainly seems to make the most sense here. It is fully owned by the Qatari government, Cohen met with QIA official during transition, has US presence.

Also: The subpoena was issued shortly after Cohen’s places were raided. Zainab Ahmad, a Mueller prosecutor and Middle East expert, was spotted at the courthouse.

My guess for this has been QAI and/or Glenncore, the company in charge of brokering the Rosneft sale.  Both have multiple offices in the United States, and can be pressured to comply with the government or lose business.

 

Deripaska

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

 

SHUTDOWN & IMMIGRATION

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET A.K.A. INDIVIDUAL-1

 

TRAITOR TOTS

Mnuchin

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

CONGRESS

 

RIGHT WING TERRORISM & WHITE NATIONALISM

 

Jussie Smollet

They tried to lynch Jussie Smollett. These 2 men reportedly hurled racist and homophobic slurs at him before beating him, yelling “This is MAGA country” as they left. Will we hear the president condemn this hate crime committed by his supporters? No. This is America in 2019.

An update on the “MAGA country” line: is reporting beyond what TMZ said. ABC reports “At the time of the attack, Smollett told police the suspects yelled “MAGA country.”” It was reportedly Jussie Smollett himself who claimed this was said.

Even more details. This fully explains the initial police statement denying that the attackers yelled “MAGA country.” We now have confirmation from Chicago PD that in a follow up interview, Smollett himself said “MAGA country” was yelled.

Remember last week when a bunch of obnoxious teens got in trouble for being racist little shits and the media world screamed that the Red Had wasn’t racist?

Yeah, fuck’em.

Here we have a situation with an actual attempted lynching of a gay black celebrity, and I’ll put money down that not one of those white ass hats will defend this young man who was almost murdered by the same kind of racist assholes that they spent last week surrounding and protecting.

 

#METOO & WOMEN’S RIGHTS

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

. on gun violence: “We’re not missing good ideas. We could pass an assault weapons ban and universal background checks. We’re not missing tragedies. The very worst have happened. So what’s missing? People in the Congress who have the courage to act.”

“This is going to sound harsh, but I think somebody should have required every member of Congress to go into a room…with no press…and look at the autopsy photos of those babies [after Sandy Hook] and then vote their conscience.”

“We have to stop believing that false choice. You can be in favor of the second amendment and want smart gun laws. You can be in favor [of ] and understand there is no reason why we have assault weapons that can kill babies and police officers.”

“Too many communities are grieving the loss of lives that should never have been taken.”

This is a great idea and well overdue, but it should be expanded.  Take all of the members of Congress, all members of the Government, all of the lobbyists, all of the members of the NRA, everyone who wants to own a gun, hell take EVERYONE and take them to a morgue and show them the bodies of those who died from gun violence.  Make them see the bodies of the children who died needlessly.  Show them the crime scene photos as well.  Then, if they still think gun control is bad, take them to the grieving parents and make them tell these parents who get to bury their little baby why their child deserved to die and why they think that there shouldn’t be any type of gun control. And force these people to do this for each and every gun murder in this country.

Then, they can have all the guns their tiny little dicks can handle.

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR, HEALTH CARE, AND ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS & RELIGION

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

ELECTIONS

 

THINKING AHEAD

Schultz

 

Harris

 

 

RUMOR MILL

Howard Schultz is worth $3.8 billion. That he is somehow intimidated by a freshman Congressional rep is the dumbest narrative in history.

It’s more blazingly obvious media Op to distract from Mueller and the Dem House’s progress. If you want to keep a Republic, stop falling for every fake horseshoe clickbait Op they throw at you and ask: Why?

Also, if you think that business prepares you for political leadership, get your heart surgery done by a jazz guitarist. They studied a lot and have dexterous hands. That should cross-over easily, right? Test the theory.

 

That’s it for Tuesday.  Things might be a little late getting posted for Wednesday.  I’m getting a late start to that post today, and my current work setup isn’t working well today.

I’m working from home today due to the cold.  Unfortunately, so is the wife.  When we both are he, I work in the basement.  It’s an unfinished basement with minimal heating.  I’ve had to venture upstairs every half hour to warm up.  Yeah, I’m just bitching about this, but it’s hard to type when my hands are cold.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

 

 

Daily Check-In 01/28/2019

Monday, January 28, 2019

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Roger Stone

A defense attorney for Andrew Miller, who’s fighting a subpoena from Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, learned Monday afternoon that the special counsel still wants witness testimony for a federal grand jury.

Paul Kamenar, the defense attorney, says the assertion from Mueller’s team made clear to him that Mueller and the Justice Department are considering an additional indictment of Roger Stone or have plans to charge others.

As I mentioned yesterday Daily Check-In 01/22/2019, things are going to get crazy from here on out.  There’s a couple directions this could go, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Stone’s associates get charged next, on the way to making the connection to Julian Assange.

 

Whitaker

 

Deripaska

According to bios released by En+, they include Nicholas Jordan, former co-CEO of Goldman Sachs’s Russia business; Carl Hughes, ex-vice chairman of Deloitte’s global energy and resources division; Joan McNaughton, who served as the UK’s director general of energy;  and Christopher Bancroft Burnham, chairman and CEO of Cambridge Global Capital LLC, a private investment advisory firm with offices in San Francisco, Chicago, and Washington, DC.

“Mr. Burnham is a globally recognised expert in the implementation of accountability and transparency, and the implementation of best practice in government, corporations, and inter-governmental organisations, having served as Under Secretary General for Management of the United Nations [where he worked alongside Trump’s current national security adviser John Bolton] and Under Secretary of State for Management (acting),” the En+ release says. “Mr. Burnham is a former Vice Chairman at Deutsche Bank Asset Management and co-founded and led Deutsche Bank’s direct private equity group, RREEF Capital Partners. Mr. Burnham is also a former Assistant Secretary of State for Resource Management and Chief Financial Officer of the US Department of State.”

The En+ release makes no mention of one other notable position Burnham also held: member of Donald Trump’s presidential transition team.

Burnham’s office did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Deripaska’s. OFAC directed Quartz to a statement posted on its website but declined to provide further details about Burnham’s appointment.

Sounds a hell of a lot like a Quid Pro Quo to me.  Immediately after the sanctions are released, a member of the Trump Transition Team gets named to the board.

 

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

 

SHUTDOWN & IMMIGRATION

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET A.K.A INDIVIDUAL-1

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

CONGRESS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

RIGHT WING TERRORISM & WHITE NATIONALISM

 

SCOTUS & COURTS

 

#METOO & WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Azriel Clary, one of Kelly’s alleged victims featured in the Lifetime series Surviving R Kelly, was reportedly flown from Palm Springs to Phoenix to Orlando in May 2015. At the time, she was only 17 years old. Clary’s family says the flights were arranged by Kelly’s personal assistant. The family has not heard from Clary since 2016 and believe she may be Kelly’s “sex slave.”

If the allegations are true, Kelly would be in violation of the Mann Act — the federal law that makes it illegal to transport a minor across state lines for purposes of sex, debauchery or prostitution. Punishment for such a crime is up to 10 years in a federal prison.

R. Kelly’s attorney, Steve Greenberg, denied to TMZ that Kelly violated the law and said he was unaware of any investigation. Representatives for the singer also point to a handwritten note from Clary’s mother in which she gave Kelly’s assistant consent to care for her daughter.

The FBI has also been in touch with the family of Jocelyn Savage, another one of Kelly’s alleged sex slaves, TMZ reports.

Since the airing of Surviving R Kelly, there’s been renewed scrutiny over Kelly’s alleged misconduct. While his attorneys maintain that the singer is innocent of all allegations, Kelly himself has ben hiding out in Chicago’s Trump Tower and was recently admitted to the hospital with panic attacks. He’s also been dropped by his longtime record label, and his manager was arrested for making terroristic threats against Kelly’s accusers.

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

TRADE WAR, HEALTH CARE, & ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

THINKING AHEAD

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Monday.  After the last couple days, it’s nice to get a little bit of a breather.  And by that, I mean that it wasn’t a complete and total clusterfuck.

Now that we’re in Phase III, expect to see some weird shit.  We’re about to see some historic levels of flailing around.  Not just from Trump, but also from those that benefit from him and the GOP policies.

Take Howard Schultz for example.  Here’s another rich guy who labels themselves as a “Centrist Independent” and is contemplating running, but won’t make up his mind until later.  If he runs, it’ll be as a third party candidate, and most likely against a Democratic nominee like Warren or Harris.  You know, one of those “evil lefty socialists” who think that rich people should pay their fair share of taxes.  The nightmare scenario is the “Centrist” (Read: Corporate Shithole) declaring a third party run and trying to siphon votes off of Warren/Harris, which would allow Trump to win.  Of course, this assumes a hell of a lot, like Trump will run in 2020.  I personally think that has a very small chance of happening, like less than 25%.

I’m not sure what’s coming around the corner, but I will always remember this phrase from a poster I had as a kid:

The light at the end of the tunnel is the headlamp of an oncoming train.

I’m just one giant fucking ray of sunshine, aren’t I?

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur