Tag: Politics

Daily Check-In 01/17/2019

Thursday, January 17, 2019

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

President Donald Trump directed his longtime attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, according to two federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter.

Trump also supported a plan, set up by Cohen, to visit Russia during the presidential campaign, in order to personally meet President Vladimir Putin and jump-start the tower negotiations. “Make it happen,” the sources said Trump told Cohen.

And even as Trump told the public he had no business deals with Russia, the sources said Trump and his children, Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr., received regular, detailed updates about the real estate development from Cohen, whom they put in charge of the project.

Cohen pleaded guilty in November to lying about the deal in testimony and in a two-page statement to the Senate and House intelligence committees. Special counsel Robert Mueller noted that Cohen’s false claim that the project ended in January 2016 was an attempt to “minimize links between the Moscow Project and Individual 1” — widely understood to be Trump — “in hopes of limiting the ongoing Russia investigations.”

Now the two sources have told BuzzFeed News that Cohen also told the special counsel that after the election, the president personally instructed him to lie — by claiming that negotiations ended months earlier than they actually did — in order to obscure Trump’s involvement.

The special counsel’s office learned about Trump’s directive for Cohen to lie to Congress through interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents. Cohen then acknowledged those instructions during his interviews with that office.

This revelation is not the first evidence to suggest the president may have attempted to obstruct the FBI and special counsel investigations into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

But Cohen’s testimony marks a significant new frontier: It is the first known example of Trump explicitly telling a subordinate to lie directly about his own dealings with Russia.

Donald Trump told Michael Cohen to lie before Congress while serving as President of the United States.  This is a lot worse than it sounds.

BuzzFeed News first reported last year that Cohen and an associate, Felix Sater, had continued working on Trump Tower Moscow through June 2016. Sater communicated with Russian bankers, developers, and officials connected to the Kremlin. That revelation was confirmed in Mueller’s filings against Cohen in court last November.

Attorneys close to the administration helped Cohen prepare his testimony and draft his statement to the Senate panel, the sources said. The sources did not say who the attorneys were or whether they were part of the White House counsel’s staff, and did not present evidence that the lawyers knew the statements would be false.

An attorney for Donald F. McGahn II, the former White House counsel who reportedly gave about 30 hours of testimony to the special counsel, told BuzzFeed News: “Don McGahn had no involvement with or knowledge of Michael Cohen’s testimony. Nor was he aware of anyone in the White House Counsel’s Office who did.”

“Attorneys close to the administration” sounds almost completely like Trump’s squad of personal lawyers and fixers, like Mark Kasowitz or Jay Sekulow.  I don’t necessarily believe Don McGahn here, but the office of White House counsel represents the Office of the President, not the President themselves.  I’m leaning toward the personal attorneys.

In his plea deal with Mueller’s team, Cohen acknowledged that the conversations he had about the project with Trump exceeded the three short briefings he testified that he gave the president and that he also held more extensive discussions about it with other members of the Trump family. The sources said Cohen gave Trump’s children “very detailed updates.”

Ivanka Trump was slated to manage a spa at the tower and personally recommended an architect. She also instructed Cohen to speak with a Russian athlete who offered “synergy on a government level” to get the Moscow project off the ground, in another aspect of the deal first revealed by BuzzFeed News that later was affirmed by the special counsel’s sentencing memo. Cohen rebuffed the athlete’s proposal, which angered Ivanka Trump, according to emails reviewed by BuzzFeed News.

It’s nice to see Kremlin Barbie caught up in this mess.  She’s as corrupt as anyone else named Trump, but doesn’t get her feet held to the fire because she’s a pretty blonde woman.

Donald Trump Jr., meanwhile, testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 7, 2017, that he was only “peripherally aware” of the plan to build a tower in Moscow. “Most of my knowledge has been gained since as it relates to hearing about it over the last few weeks.”

The two law enforcement sources disputed this characterization and said that he and Cohen had multiple, detailed conversations on this subject during the campaign.

Cohen will testify publicly before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Feb. 7.

Wow.  So, is it just Cohen’s word against Trump’s?

The special counsel’s office learned about Trump’s directive for Cohen to lie to Congress through interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents. Cohen then acknowledged those instructions during his interviews with that office.

Oh, shit.  It’s on like Donkey Kong.

 

This is the first evidence in the public sphere of Trump directly being involved in the cover-up while President. Any and all chance of plausible deniability just flew out the window.

Plus, this also implicates Donnie Jr. and Ivanka as well in the cover-up. Junior coordinated his story with the other witnesses, and several other staffers like Hope Hicks all testified to Congress the same stuff that Cohen testified to. If Cohen, who has a history of keeping all of his emails and recording all of his conversations, pointed the Special Counselor to it among the millions of documents the FBI seized from him, then everyone is going down for being part of the conspiracy.

Think of everyone who testified before Congress from the Trump Administration, Campaign, or Transition Team.  According to the Minority Report (Daily Check-In 04/27/2018), more than 30 people testified before the HPSCI, and they all had the same story that Trump didn’t know anything about working with Russia.  That includes Trump’s secretary Rhona Graff, Hope Hicks, Michael Caputo, Roger Stone, Rick Dearborn, Steve Bannon, Corey Lewandowski, Felix Sater, Sam Clovis, and Donnie Jr.  And that’s just the House investigation.  We still don’t have a complete accounting of everyone who testified before the Senate Intel Committee, but all of them organizing the same story to have it blown out of the water only means that a lot of people just woke up with a slight pain in their chests.

Also, if we’re getting this from Cromier and Leopold, then not only did it happen, but it’s far enough along that it can’t be stopped. Anthony Cromier won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism, and Jason Leopold is a finalist for 2018. They uncovered the details behind Paul Manafort’s money laundering, how the Russians hid payments, uncovered the screwiness at the Treasury where several people were potentially working with Russian spies, and they broke open the details of the Trump Tower Moscow deal last month. Also, Cromier worked on uncovering the Stormy Daniels payoff made by Michael Cohen. These dudes are ballers.

 

Colludy Giuliani’s Lubing the Truth Tour

So, now Rudy changes his story again from “No Collusion” “Maybe, but not my client.”

He’s lubing the truth for something truly spectacular.

 

Skadden

Skadden, the very same firm that Alex Van Der Zwaan worked for.

WASHINGTON — A global New York-based law firm has agreed to pay $4.6 million to settle a Justice Department investigation into whether its work for a Russia-aligned Ukrainian government violated lobbying laws.

The investigation stems from work that the firm, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, did with Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman. The case overlaps with the investigation of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

As part of the settlement, the law firm agreed to register retroactively as a foreign agent for Ukraine in addition to paying the government $4.6 million, representing the money it earned from its work in Ukraine.

The settlement between the firm and the Justice Department, which was made public on Thursday, is the latest indication that Mr. Mueller’s inquiry and related investigations are fundamentally challenging the lucrative but shadowy foreign-lobbying industry that has thrived in Washington.

 

Deripaska Sanctions

 

 

Coming Up

The group and its origins sound innocuous enough. But the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) — a right-wing group founded 36 years ago — has deepened connections between America’s religious right and Russians even as the latter have been sanctioned by the United States, according to a ThinkProgress investigation.

By networking with Russians, the HSLDA — now America’s largest right-wing homeschooling association — has provided the Kremlin with a new avenue of influence over some of the most conservative organizations in the United States.

And while investigations by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, intelligence organizations, and congressional committees have focused on Russia’s efforts to influence U.S. elections, Russian ties to groups like the HSLDA demonstrate the Kremlin’s broader attempts to hold sway over American policies.

Other ties between sanctioned Russians and the American far-right are well documented. From Christian fundamentalists to white supremacists to secession movements to fascists in the so-called “alt-right,” the links are as diffuse as they are damning. Not only have these networks brought Russian agents into close contact with higher-ups in the Republican party, but they’ve presented some of the primary threads of the Kremlin’s efforts at upending and unwinding American democracy.

This will be worth keeping an eye on to see what happens.

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

Poll Rigging at Liberty University

Some time ago, I wrote one of the most important pieces of information in the Michael Cohen filings was the $50,000 given to him by the Trump Org as reimbursement for IT campaign expenses. Soon after, I heard, but could not confirm, this was connected to Jerry Falwell Jr. …

2…the WSJ confirmed it and has the story today that Cohen paid money to Falwell’s IT guy to rig online polling. So now that all the info is out there, time to discuss the significance. If you look at all of the pieces of information, the one hand you do not see involved is….

3….that of the Trump campaign itself. Cohen does the work, Trump Org pays the money, the payment of $13,000 in cash goes to Falwell’s guy, the other $37,000 is…somewhere. Start with, there is NEVER an instance where a campaign pays large sums of cash for a legal act…..

4…cash leaves no trail. That is why it was used to finance the Watergate burglars. The checks cut by the Trump Organization to Cohen on behalf of the campaign – was TO serving as the slush fund for the Trump Campaign? If so, LOTS of expenditures connected to the company….

5…should have been reported as campaign-share expenditures. But there is no reason anyone would do a direct payment like that – TO to Cohen. And there is no reason why anyone would do a 3-step payment – TO to Cohen (converted to cash) to Falwell’s guy. The way a lawful….

6…payment would have been done is check from campaign to Falwell’s guy (if it was a legitimate expense.) All the go-betweens are only used for concealment. This is standard, seen-it-a-million-times, clumsy white-collar money laundering to hide an illicit act. The act….

7…here was to rig online polls, according to Cohen. Falwell’s guy also engages in search engine optimization, so I have a feeling there will be more turning up about what was done here. Of course the big question now remaining is what happened to the other $37,000. What we do..

8…know is this: The Trump Organization gave Michael Cohen money to engage in illicit and possibly illegal behavior for campaign purposes. One of the checks was the Stormy Daniels payment. There are a few more suspicious elements of that payment (why would the total amount….

9…have been rounded up if this was not a knowingly illicit act? In other words, if there was to be a payment to Daniels, why not just have the Trump Org pay it rather than Trump Org to Cohen to Daniels, reimbursed as a campaign expense, then tens of thousands added to round…

10…up reimbursement for tax purposes, since Cohen would have to report on his taxes the reimbursement as not an expense reimbursement but as income). There is a LOT of conniving going on here, a LOT of the procedures of money transfer showing knowledge of guilt. People don’t…

11…work so hard to cover payments for a lawful act. So, Congress must ask – who told Cohen to pay cash to Falwell’s guy? Where is the other $37,000? What other monies was the Trump Org paying on behalf of campaign? And how do they explain disguising expense reimbursement…

12…as compensation to Cohen. Again, that one fact – upping the reimbursement of the Stormy Daniels payoff to account for taxes since Cohen was reporting reimbursement as income – is key to establishing guilty mind of everyone involved – potentially Trump himself. End

Up until 10 PM, I thought this was the biggest story of the week.  Here is evidence that Trump’s campaign rigged online polls, and that they used the Religious Right to do it.

Trump gave Michael Cohen $50,000 to rig a couple online polls so that he looked like he had a larger following than he did.  This was during the Primary season, when 17 people were running for the nomination and Trump was just the second or third craziest of them.  Cohen went to Jerry Falwell Jr.’s college in Virginia and had their CIO/IT guy set up bots to tweet on Trump’s behalf and vote on online polls.  Cohen then paid the IT guy $13,000 for the work.

I have a few questions that I hope get answered soon.

Why travel to Virginia to hire someone to make a bot army when they could find someone in their own backyard?  Why Jerry Falwell Jr. specifically, and not someone else?  Where did the rest of the money go?  Was it just the polls that Trump bragged about that were affected, or others as well?  How much did committing fraud help his nascent campaign?

 

SHUTDOWN & IMMIGRATION

After yesterday’s report of Nancy Pelosi uninviting Trump from delivering the State of the Union speech in the Capitol (Daily Check-In 01/16/2019), Trump decided to be even pettier and cancelled her trip to Afghanistan to meet with our NATO allies.

But not really.

He could only cancel her access to using a military jet for the travel.  She was still planning on flying commercial, right up until Trump told the world the details of the trip.  Nothing like creating a potential security risk.

After cancelling Nancy Pelosi’s access to a military jet, Trump authorized a military jet to fly his wife to their summer home in a country club in Palm Beach, Florida.  Meanwhile, her Secret Service detail is not getting paid for covering her, and their families are lining up at a food kitchen because Trump wants to build a wall that only became an emergency when it became apparent that the Democrats would control the House.

 

Mitch McConnell

Fuck Mitch McConnell with a glass covered strap-on.

Always remember, he is a traitor to the United States of America.  He had prior knowledge of Russia’s attempts to influence and attack the election of 2016.  He was in Cleveland in late July and met with the Russian Ambassador while there.  A couple weeks later, he threatened to attack Obama if Obama released a statement saying that the Russians had attacked the United States.

According to Dante, the lowest circle of Hell is reserved for traitors.  Mitch’s spot there is reserved.

 

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

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

The reason why it’s hard for the public to absorb the Russia conspiracy is that Trump is so obvious, explicit, and flagrant. We are experiencing cognitive dissonance in seeing a president repeatedly and openly conspire. It seems too crazy to be true. But it’s true.

For goodness sake, his Treasury department is trying to lift sanctions for the obvious benefit of Putin, Deripaska, VTB, Rusal, and Putin-enabler Glencore. Yesterday, 43 GOP Senators -just enough – voted yesterday to preserve this corrupt deal. The pay-offs are in broad daylight.

3/ Trump’s comments on Putin were so sycophantic and obsequious for so long, I think we forget how obvious it was during the 2016 campaign. When Clinton said he was Putin’s puppet, it wasn’t a random attack. It was an obvious observation. Let’s review…

4/ Where Western banks had seen a liability, Russia saw an _asset_. Pun intended. To those following Trump’s many financial disasters, the signs were clear: Russia had bailed out Trump financially when everyone else sensibly realized he was just a bankruptcy waiting to happen.

Jed Shugerman Retweeted Donald J. Trump

5/ The bizarre pro-Putin tweets go back to 2013. The charitable reading (pun not intended) was that Trump desparately relied on Russian investment for financial survival and he was kissing up to Putin for more:

Donald J. TrumpVerified account @realDonaldTrump

Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow – if so, will he become my new best friend?

6/ The above was June 2013. Here’s Oct 2013 on David Letterman: Trump says he’s done “a lot of business with the Russians,” calls them “smart” & “tough.” They don’t look “so dumb right now.” Putin is a “tough guy” & says that he “met him once.” h/t @CNN

7/ Damn, this @MaxBootpiece takes no prisoners. It laid out the case that Trump could be a Russian asset from evidence in plain sight. This article itself could be an article of impeachment.

8/ When @jonathanchaitwrote this piece in 2017, “What If Trump Has Been a Russian Asset Since 1987?” some people dismissed him. I thought it was a clear roadmap, consistent with @lukeharding1968‘s reporting. It is a must-read once again.

Jed Shugerman Retweeted Cristina Maza

9/ Today I spoke with @CrisLeeMaza @Newsweek about House vote to keep Russian sanctions and the shameful Senate vote by 43 GOP to lift. New vote is possible. We just need 3: @MittRomney @BernieSanders @SenatorBurr @LindseyGrahamSC @lisamurkowski

Cristina MazaVerified account @CrisLeeMaza

“Given the reality of corporate structures, anyone looking at this understands that he was left with enough control that he would benefit if sanctions were lifted,” @jedshugon the Treasury Department’s plans to lift sanctions on Oleg Deripaska’s companies https://www.newsweek.com/trump-putin-republicans-oligarch-deripaska-1296474 …

10/ @jonathanchait: “2003-2017, people from former USSR made 86 all-cash purchases—a red flag of potential laundering—of Trump properties, totaling $109 million. In 2010, DeutscheBank loaned him 100s of millions during the same period it was laundering billions in Russian money.”

11/ @DonaldJTrumpJrin 2008: “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets.” @EricTrump in 2014: “We don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.” Yep. And Russia gets all the leverage they need in return.

12/ Trump 2013: “I do have a relationship [w/ Putin] and I can tell you that he’s very interested in what we’re doing. He’s probably very interested in what you and I are saying today…I do have a relationship with him and I think it’s very interesting to see what’s happened.”

13/ Trump 2014: “When I went to Russis, (Putin) contacted me and was so nice. I mean, the Russian people were so fantastic to us. They’re outsmarting us at many turns. Their leaders are, whether you call them smarter or more cunning or whatever, but they’re outsmarting us.“ Yup.

14/ Trump 2014: “We just left Moscow. [Putin] could not have been nicer. He was so nice and so everything. But you have to give him credit that what he’s doing for that country in terms of their world prestige is very strong.” Trump praised Putin’s invasion of Crimea. @CNN

15/ INSANITY: Trump 2014: Endorses Putin’s invasion of Crimea, ”Well, he’s done an amazing job of taking the mantle. And so smart. When you see the riots in a country because they’re hurting the Russians, OK, ‘We’ll go and take it over.’ You have to give him a lot of credit.”

16/ Trump 2014: Endorses Putin’s advance into Ukraine again: Putin “absolutely having a great time. Russia is really hot stuff. You have people in the Ukraine — who knows, set up or not — but it can’t all be set up, I mean they’re marching in favor of joining Russia.”

 

SNOWFLAKES

No, I haven’t seen the aforementioned commercial yet.

 

SCOTUS & COURTS

 

#METOO & WOMEN’S RIGHTS

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

STUDENT ISSUES

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS & RELIGION

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

CONGRESS

 

ELECTIONS

 

THINKING AHEAD

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

IN OTHER NEWS

Happy 97th Birthday, Betty White: The legendary Golden Girl’s life in photos

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Thursday.  Fuck.  Not really sure what’s going to happen on Friday, but hopefully we’re now at the Serious Impeachment talk.

There’s always been some impeachment talk, but it’s been at the fringes of power.  It hasn’t come from party leadership, or in droves.  Sure, we had some waves here and there, but the calls for impeachment haven’t sustained for more than a week at a time.

This… this could be different.  Things are piling up.  A government shutdown that’s forcing chaos across the country and millions to suffer plus news of several acts of conspiring with a foreign power to fuck with the election plus repeated attempts at covering it all up including lying to Congress eventually adds up.

I might have some time to write a little bit more this weekend.  The East Coast is supposed to get hit with some snow, so I might be trapped indoors for a while.

Also, I’m rooting for anyone but the Patriots.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 01/16/2019

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

The day after the two meetings, as Mr. Trump was on Air Force One taking off from Germany heading back to Washington, he telephoned a Times reporter and argued that the Russians were falsely accused of election interference. While he insisted most of the conversation be off the record, he later repeated a few things in public in little-noticed asides.

Let’s think back to July 2017.  Trump meets with Putin at the G20 summit with Rex Tillerson and a translator.  Rex gives one description of the events.  Trump gives another to the reporters.  While this is going on, the New York Times prepares to launch the June 9th Meeting bombshell.  Trump finds out about this after his first meeting with Putin.  Later, during dinner, Trump moves over to Putin’s seat and they talk for 30 minutes with no Americans present.  Afterward, Putin says they talked about “adoptions.”

Adoptions are the code word for sanctions and the Magnitsky Act.  After the act was passed in the United States in December 2012, the Russians retaliated by preventing Americans from adopting Russian children.  However, the only children available for adoption at that time were critically ill or disabled.  So, all this did was prevent their most vulnerable children from being taken in by families.

Back to the events at hand.  The New York Times reaches out for comment on their upcoming story, and the press office says nothing.  Then, after dinner, Trump calls a reporter for the New York Times **cough**Maggie Haberman**cough** and tells her that the Russians are being falsely accused of attacking the United States, but it’s off the record.  Of course, Trump then repeats this shit over and over, so it’s not really off the record anymore.

Over the span of a couple days, everyone by Trump Jr. kept his mouth shut about the meeting.  That’s because Daddy wrote Jr.’s alibi and press statement.  This evolved over the next few days until Donnie Jr. released his email chain, implicating everyone involved.

 

For those still unclear THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION WORKED AT THE BEHEST OF A RUSSIAN AGENT THE WHOLE FIRST YEAR. Impeach.

Real simple: They were still taking cues from an admitted foreign agent who worked with and for Russian spies. These are foreign-backed traitors, and they must be removed at once.

They conspired – together as Americans, and with their Russian spy counterparts – to cover up their obligation to the foreigners who helped them get elected.

Manafort worked on behalf of hostile foreign powers, including transnational organized crime, to control the Executive Branch. He picked the VP. His plea deal, though heavily redacted, admits he’s been a foreign agent the whole time.

Republicans denied it, fake opposition Leftists said it was unimportant, media obscured it, regularly libeling the people trying to warn the world. But there it is in court documents. The worst case scenario. Foreign enemies seizing power.

There are no other convenient narratives. Take back your country from these criminals, or you’ll lose it. </>

 

 

 

Whenever I say “Peace Deal”, think “Selling out Ukraine to the Russians and trying to prop up Viktor Yanokovitch.”

 

Colludy Giuliani’s “Lubing the Truth” Tour

I’ve got $20 that says even more hard proof of the henchmen conspiring with Russia will be coming out in the next few weeks.  I’ve also got money riding on it snowing in this month, too.

 

Remember, The Justice League contains experts in everything from money laundering to cybercrime to terrorism to pulling tags off of mattresses and selling them on the black market.

In short, we’ve reached a point in the Mueller probe where there are only two scenarios left: Either the president is compromised by the Russian government and has been working covertly to cooperate with Vladimir Putin after Russia helped win him the 2016 election—or Trump will go down in history as the world’s most famous “useful idiot,” as communists used to call those who could be co-opted to the cause without realizing it.

We are now at the point where there is so much evidence of a conspiracy with the Russians that we’re left with only two conclusions.

  1. Trump is a witting Russian asset.
  2. Trump is the world’s biggest useful idiot.

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

Gee, what a surprise, someone screwed up and didn’t think that Trump would use his hotel to solicit bribes.

 

SHUTDOWN & IMMIGRATION

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

 

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

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

#METOO & WOMEN’S RIGHTS

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

STUDENT ISSUES

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

PRIESTS & RELIGION

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

CONGRESS

 

THINKING AHEAD

Whatever you think of Kirsten Gillibrand, she is not responsible for Al Franken’s behavior nor his resignation. Chuck Schumer reportedly told him privately to resign before Gillibrand said anything. She was the 1st to publicly call for his resignation – by a matter of minutes. 1/

Kirsten Gillibrand doesn’t have the power to force another senator to resign. Al Franken chose to resign; he was not forced out by one senator’s statement. Or maybe you don’t like the way the accusations were handled … but Gillibrand isn’t responsible for that, either. 2/

We live in a society that minimizes sexual violence and punishes both victims & those who stand with them. Men’s careers & reputations are assigned more value than women’s lives. Think about the message you’re sending by punishing Kirsten Gillibrand for Al Franken’s behavior. 3/

The message you’re sending, whether intentional or not, is that women who speak out against men who are credibly accused of sexual assault should expect to be vilified, disparaged, and used as an example to warn others to stay silent — or face the same consequences. 4/

Our culture doesn’t like powerful women (2016? anyone?), so when a woman like Kirsten Gillibrand dares to wield any power, her motives are called into question; her courage portrayed as “opportunism”; her strength framed as ruthlessness; her conviction cast as selfishness. 5/

And for many of those replying to this thread: Remember when Republicans attacked Christine Blasey Ford? Why, when it comes to our own, do you suddenly find it acceptable to shame the woman who spoke out about the problem? You’re not an ally if your support is conditional. 6/

Again, regardless of what you think of her candidacy, Gillibrand is a leading voice on sexual assault. Her call for Al Franken to resign was entirely consistent with her principles. You say you want principled leaders, but then you vilify Gillibrand for being too principled. 7/

And for those who don’t think the allegations against Al Franken (by 8 different women) were credible: Why are you lashing out at Kirsten Gillibrand? Why aren’t you angry at Al Franken for resigning before an investigation? Perhaps because you know he resigned for good reason. 8/

Gillibrand knew she was taking a risk when she spoke out about Al Franken. Our culture reserves a special type of rage for women who report sexual violence, & it extends to women who publicly stand with victims even when it means speaking hard truths to a colleague and friend. 9/

The true test of our principles is whether we apply them to our friends just as we do our adversaries. Kirsten Gillibrand could have saved herself a lot of trouble by staying quiet about Al Franken. But that would have impeded her efforts to help survivors. So she spoke up. 10/

I was devastated when the accusations against Al Franken came out. But I was more devastated when I realized that so many self-declared progressives were willing to overlook those accusations to save a man’s career — and to ruin a woman’s career for not overlooking them. 11/

Al Franken *admitted* to wrongdoing. He said his behavior “crossed a line.” Yet Kirsten Gillibrand is receiving more anger for saying his behavior was wrong than the man who said it himself. If you don’t see a problem with that, well, maybe that’s because you’re part of it. 12/

For those who like Al Franken and blame Kirsten Gillibrand for his resignation: Have you ever considered that Franken believed resigning was the right thing to do? That maybe he didn’t want the Democratic Party to lose all credibility on matters related to sexual assault? 13/

I just hope those of you who are channeling your anger over Al Franken’s resignation at Kirsten Gillibrand will consider the bigger picture. Do you think it’s acceptable to encourage women to stay silent to protect men? Because that’s what you’re doing. 14/

Here’s the thing: Al Franken resigned. He’s gone. Blaming Kirsten Gillibrand is not going to bring him back. But you know what it will do? Unnecessarily create a rift among Democratic voters & provide a perfect target for any bad actors looking to divide the left in 2020. 15/

 

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Wednesday.  Thursday brings along a new revelation about Michael Cohen’s work for Trump, and ties together two questions.  How are the megachurches involved, and what did Cohen do with that $50,000 he spent on campaign IT work?

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 01/15/2019

Tuesday, January 15, 2019

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Manafort & Kilimnik

This newest filing includes the evidence that Mueller has collected that proves that Manafort lied to them so often that they felt they had no choice bu to take that plea deal and throw it in the shredder.

The filing is 31 pages long with almost 200 pages of evidence.  A lot of the evidence came from his computers, where he used the password “bond007”.  He didn’t give them the password, the FBI guessed it on the first try.  They had the length, the hint was “Secret Agent”, and his wife’s maiden name is Bond.  Not exactly an IT expert.

Aside from the comedy, this filing lays out in detail how Manafort lied, how he committed his crimes, and how fucked he is.  At least, that’s what we assume is under the black bars.  There’s so many redactions the pages look like levels of Donkey Kong.

Barr

I’m not trusting this guy.  Everything about this guy screams cover-up puppet.

 

Deripaska

 

Gates

 

Corsi

 

Nunes

 

Kushner

 

Pooty Calls

 

Coming Up

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

 

SHUTDOWN & IMMIGRATION

 

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

 

TRAITOR TOTS

Lindsey Graham is a 63 year old “confirmed bachelor” who has never married and has no kids.  The rumor mill has it that his being gay is an open secret, even though he’s so far deep in the closet he found Narnia.  The thing is, no one really cares about him being gay in 2019, unless there were something else to that.

We’ve talked about before Daily Check-In 09/26/2018 and Daily Check-In 09/18/18 when Dr. Melissa Kester described what intel she had on Senator Graham:

Affair with a married man who plays straight, is a political operative and has young kids. That’s what they got. Have we not discussed this yet, Ellis? We need to.

I hate playing the speculation game when it comes to a person’s private life, but when that gets used against them and they turn on everything they once held close, to the point of almost crossing the line to treason, that’s when speculation becomes fair game.

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

RIGHT WING TERRORISM & WHITE NATIONALISM

 

KHASHOGGI & SAUDI ARABIA

 

SCOTUS & COURTS

 

#METOO & WOMEN’S RIGHTS

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

John Schinder: BAD TAKE ALERT: While I have praised @NRO for its even-handedness (and then some) regarding Trump, this anti-FBI screed from @RichLowry (FYI the NR EIC — who, let me say, I usually enjoy reading) needs to be called out. How, I ask you, is the FBI “trampling our political order” by conducting a counterintelligence investigation? Not a criminal investigation (you know, possible arrests), CI. That’s, ahem, the Bureau’s job. Is POTUS above scrutiny? That seems to be the point of this piece. /2 Says @RichLowry: “US presidents over the decades have made many foolhardy decisions that have undermined our security; never before have they been deemed a fit subject for an FBI investigation.” Yes, this is true; but it omits the key fact here…. /3 Namely that we’ve never before Trump had a POTUS who plausibly might be considered a pawn (witting or not) of a hostile foreign power. This is a big uncharted ocean for USG. Since @RichLowry thinks the FBI had no business conducting a CI inquiry into President Trump, ok…. /4 Either POTUS is inherently above investigation (mmmmmkay…neat authoritarian take there) or @RichLowry thinks it should not be done by the FBI — you know, USG’s lead CI agency. Maybe we should have the Nat’l Park Service do it? How about Dept of Agriculture counterspies? /5X CODA: Journalists and pundits (of all POVs) need to step back and consider that the FBI and IC know things about Trump and his Kremlin connections that are not, ahem, in the public eye yet. /6XX

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

STUDENT ISSUES

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

CONGRESS

 

THINKING AHEAD

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Tuesday.  Once again, I ran short on time on this article.  I should be back to normal in the next couple days.

One spoiler for Wednesday: Nancy Pelosi has uninvited Trump from the Capitol for delivering the State of the Union address.  She told him he can either send over a written version, reopen the government, or wait until the government is reopen to deliver his speech.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 01/14/2019

Monday, January 14, 2019

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

NATO

 

Nunes

The Special Counsel’s Office and federal prosecutors in Manhattan are scrutinizing a meeting involving former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, one-time National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, and dozens of foreign officials, according to three sources familiar with the investigations.

The breakfast event, which was first reported by The Daily Sabah, a pro-government Turkish paper, took place at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. at 8.30 a.m. on Jan. 18, 2017—two days before President Donald Trump’s inauguration. About 60 people were invited, including diplomats from governments around the world, according to those same sources.

The breakfast has come under scrutiny by federal prosecutors in Manhattan as part of their probe into whether the Trump inaugural committee misspent fundsand if donors tried to buy influence in the White House. The existence of that probe was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. The Special Counsel’s Office is also looking at the breakfast as part of its investigation into whether foreigners contributed money to the Trump inaugural fund and PAC by possibly using American intermediaries, as first reported by The New York Times. Robert Mueller’s team has asked Flynn about the event, according to two sources familiar with the Special Counsel’s Office questioning.

…

Pluvious Group, a consultancy that raised money for the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign, helped with the event’s organization, according to two sources with knowledge of the breakfast. The group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“If you’re a prosecutor, all of the right players are there,” said former federal prosecutor Paul Pelletier, referring to the breakfast. “In a lot of ways breakfasts like this are totally normal. It happens all the time in Washington. So, they wouldn’t be investigating it if they weren’t following the money. The big question would be who is paying for it? It’s got to be part of the broader scheme of who is trying to use money to influence the White House.”

…

It’s not surprising that Nunes and Flynn found themselves together in the days before the inauguration. Nunes’ links to Flynn are substantial. During the 24-day period when Flynn served as Trump’s national security adviser, Flynn brought one of Nunes’ senior aides, the former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst Derek Harvey, onto the staff of the National Security Council. Another former aide to Nunes’ committee, Michael Ellis, went to the White House counsel’s office. Ellis and a third Flynn aide, the NSC intelligence director Ezra Cohen-Watnick, reportedly fed Nunes information that Nunes presented as deriving from intelligence whistleblowers worried about inappropriate “unmasking” of Americans’ names from surveillance intercepts, such as Flynn’s. (Cohen-Watnick denies involvement.)

In February of 2017, as the possibility arose of Trump firing Flynn for misleading Vice President Mike Pence, Nunes told a reporter that he expected Flynn to keep his job. “It just seems like there’s a lot of nothing there,” Nunes told Bloomberg News.

Trump fired Flynn the next day. And Nunes became a rare voice defending the retired Army lieutenant general. “Washington, D.C. can be a rough town for honorable people, and Flynn—who has always been a soldier, not a politician—deserves America’s gratitude and respect for dedicating so much of his life to strengthening our national security,” Nunes said on Feb. 14, 2017. Flynn would plead guilty to lying to the FBI that December.

 

Trump’s Pooty Calls

THREAD: Has anyone noticed the very disturbing overlap between Trump’s insistence on preventing his own staff from learning about discussions with Putin at the Hamburg G20 meeting in July 2017 and how he handled initial revelations about the infamous Trump Tower meeting? 1/

Greg MillerVerified account @gregpmiller

NEW: After closed door mtg with Putin, Trump took his interpreter’s notes, told linguist not to reveal what had transpired to other administration officials. Pattern of concealing communications with Putin. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-has-concealed-details-of-his-face-to-face-encounters-with-putin-from-senior-officials-in-administration/2019/01/12/65f6686c-1434-11e9-b6ad-9cfd62dbb0a8_story.html?utm_term=.866a342cc660&wpisrc=al_post_exclusive__alert-exclusive–alert-national&wpmk=1 …

Consider the following timeline: on July 7–8, 2017,Trump attends the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany the site of his first face to face encounter with Putin. 2/

On the morning of July 7, 2017, the New York Times informs the White House–for the first time–that it has learned about the Trump Tower meeting between Don Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and a Russian lawyer with Russian government connections, Natalya Veselnitskaya. 3/

The New York Times asks the White House to comment. 4/

On the afternoon of July 7, 2017, Trump and Putin, accompanied only by Rex Tillerson, Sergei Lavrov and their interpreters, meet for 2 and 1/2 hours. 5/

We now know from @gregpmiller that after the meeting Trump seizes the US interpreter’s notes and tells her not to brief senior NSC or State Department aides about the conversation with Putin. https://wapo.st/2Fyrqtt?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.2dec17269030 … 6/

Later that evening on July 7, 2017, during the formal G20 summit dinner, Trump seeks out Putin for another conversation. Putin’s interpreter is the only other participant. 7/

The fact of this meeting is not publicly revealed until more than a week later after @ianbremmerhears about it from other G20 attendees. (The White House doesn’t officially confirm it until July 18, 2017.)http://reut.rs/2vfTTwi @steveholland18/

As Bremmer points out, Trump oddly doesn’t even inform his own staff afterwards that he’s had this second conversation with Putin. https://twitter.com/ianbremmer/status/1084583168152428545 …9/

On the AF1 flight back to Washington the next day on July 8, 2017, Trump dictates the text of the now infamous, misleading statement (for Don Jr. to release) about the Trump Tower meeting. http://wapo.st/2vh7dmA?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.c483e459eca7 …@AshleyRParker@CarolLeonnig@PhilipRucker@thamburger 10/

Don Jr.’s statement to @nytimesemphasizes: “We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children” at the meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya 11/

The @nytimes story about the Trump Tower meeting appears later that same day (July 8, 2017) https://nyti.ms/2uWPOMw @Jo_Becker@mattapuzzo@adamgoldmanNYT12/

On July 11, 2017 the same @nytimes team breaks the story that Don Jr was told in advance that Veselnitskaya intended to provide dirt on the Hillary Clinton campaign at the behest of the Russian government. Don Jr. replies: “I love it.” https://nyti.ms/2u4Ly0W 13/

On July 19, 2017 Trump repeats the false assertion that he talked to Putin about adoption in a conversation with @peterbakernyt,@nytmike and @maggieNYThttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/us/politics/trump-interview-transcript.html?module=inline … 14/

In the same interview, Trump also floats the idea that there was nothing inappropriate about his senior-most campaign officials meeting with foreign emissaries who wanted to help his campaign. “Who wouldn’t have taken a meeting like that?” 15/

All of this begs the question: What did Trump and Putin actually discuss at that impromptu one-on-one dinner meeting at the Hamburg G20 on July 7, 2017? 16/

Moreover, why did they huddle together by themselves within hours of the White House learning that the at-that-point-still-secret Trump Tower meeting between Trump, Jr. and the Russians was about to become public? 17/

Put another way, shortly after the New York Times reached out to the White House to ask about a secret meeting with the Russians, Trump himself sought a secret meeting with the Russians. 18/

h/t Former federal prosecutor who helped compile this timeline and series of as-yet unanswered questions END

 

 

Barr

 

Manafort

 

Trump’s “I am not a crook” Moment

 

 

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

 

SHUTDOWN & IMMIGRATION

 

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

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

RIGHT WING TERRORISM & WHITE NATIONALISM

 

KHASHOGGI & SAUDI ARABIA

 

SCOTUS & COURTS

 

#METOO & WOMEN’S RIGHTS

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

Clemson Dinner

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

STUDENT ISSUES

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS & RELIGION

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

CONGRESS

 

THINKING AHEAD

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

In 1992, the Soviet Union broke up, melted down its Mob, spy services, and government and forged a single weapon. There was no historical precedent. It took us 25 years to catch up as they used Mob money to corrupt institutions at a lightning pace. But they’re busted.

Oh, and as climate change continued and clean energy tech advanced, Russia got extra help from Saudi, Qatar, Iran, Turkey, and its Cold War drug dealing partners in South America and Asia. It took a lot of effort to clean up.

Especially since NBC gave a TV show for ten years to a guy they knew was actually not a billionaire and gave him eight zillion dollars of free PR. Which then Russia took advantage of, since he laundered money for their Mob.

The US media was either incompetent or complicit, focused on a single email server from Hillary Clinton rather than all the Russian oligarch money EVERYWHERE and then the Mob front from Queens accidentally got elected. And then the media continued to massively screw up.

But 29 NATO intel agencies and global law enforcement had decades of files on the conspirators, and they were idiots who used consumer-grade electronics versus nation-states, giving prosecutors mountains of court-ready evidence. And now they go down. FIN.

 

 

That’s it for Monday.  It’s been a busy day, so I didn’t have as much time to go into all of the areas I wanted to. But, like I said in Daily Check-In 01/11/2019, we’re entering the “News for the Masses/Confirmation for the Junkies” phase.  Out of the three major stories that broke, we’ve seen on these pages before.

We’ve seen Trump’s threats to leave NATO multiple times, but we haven’t seen them in the same articles asking if he was a Russian spy.  We yelled from the rooftops that he was a Russian Agent when he did that before.  Now, it’s nice to see everyone else catching up and asking the same questions.

We’ve talked about Devin Nunes’s breakfast meeting with Michael Flynn and the Turks (2018 Retrospective), but it’s nice to see that Mueller’s looking into it.  If Mueller’s looking into it, then Dipshit Cowpoke is screwed.  Especially if Flynn flipped as hard as we suspect.

As far as Trump charging himself ridiculous prices, of course we saw this coming from a mile away.  We’ve talked about this a few times, and with as corrupt as he is, there wasn’t a chance that he wouldn’t take a chance at the largest potential pay day in his life.  He ordered his inauguration to book his hotel, then had his hotel charge above market rates for below market services.  His hotel would then pocket the difference.  It’s a classic corruption deal that Trump has pulled many times, and his evil crotchfruit engage in the same tricks.  They think it makes them smart.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur