Tag: Politics

Daily Check-In 10/29/2018

Monday, October 29, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

In The Guardian today, Luke Harding explains that Czechoslovak intelligence, a junior partner of the KGB, seems to have been rather close to Donald Trump as far back as the late 1970s. During the Cold War, Prague’s State Security or StB cultivated Western rising stars (including current British Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn) as possible spies. They had high interest in Donald Trump, given his bright future in New York and beyond.

Trump came to the StB’s attention due to his relationship with his first wife Ivana (née Zelníčková), a Czech model he was married to from 1977 to 1992. When Ivana moved to America to live with her new husband, the StB kept tabs on her and her family, as has been known for some time. Her father, Miloš Zelníček, collaborated with the StB, sharing information on his daughter and her new life.

This was normal in the East Bloc during the Cold War, when the Communist state security apparatus had enormous power and citizens with relatives living in the West had little choice but to collaborate if they wished to stay in touch with loved ones abroad. Most of what Zelníček shared with the StB about his daughter and son-in-law appears mundane, of interest only because decades later Trump became the American president.

…

Many StB foreign intelligence operations focused on monitoring citizens living abroad like Ivana, keeping tabs while trying to leverage them for espionage purposes. Although existing StB files don’t indicate that Donald Trump himself was ever recruited by the StB, the November 1979 report includes a tantalizing fact, namely that among the StB organizations copied on it for distribution was the service’s 1st Directorate, the foreign intelligence arm. Specifically, its 23rd Department was copied on the report.

The highly secretive 23rd Department was no ordinary StB office, but part of the elite Illegals sub-directorate. Illegals were the StB’s crème de la crème, hand-selected deep-cover spies dispatched to the West, without the benefit of diplomatic protection; if caught, they were on their own. They posed as ordinary people, often immigrants, but they reported to the StB. The 23rd Department had the demanding job of selecting, training, and managing Illegals in the field. There was no more sensitive office in the service.

Why was the super-secret 23rd Department copied on a mundane information report about the Trump family? To those versed in the ways of Soviet bloc espionage, there can only be one answer: Because the StB either had (or was planning to have) an Illegal close to the Trump family. The service’s effort to keep tabs on Ivana Trump and her husband in America, mainly through her father, was not the real secret here.

I’ve mentioned once or twice before that Ivana’s father had some ties to Soviet Intelligence, and we’ve talked at length about Donald Trump’s connections to Russia going back to 1987. (Daily Check-In 11/20/2017)  That Russia trip was thought by many to be the first attempts at trying to cultivate him as a Russian Asset, but according to this news, the efforts likely started at least 10 years earlier.

Plus, John’s analysis brings up another important find, and that’s the 23rd Department.  Their job was managing Illegals.  In spycraft, Illegals, also known as Sleepers or Sleeper Agents, are the top wrung of spies, the best of the best.  They go deep undercover, and are offered no protection from their government like a diplomatic post or passport.  They are on their own, and they infiltrate where no one else can get to them.  The fact that tiny details like how many nannies a little boy has, or what their ethnicities are, is pretty interesting.

The Czechs and the Soviets had their eyes on Trump for years.  Many years.  At least 40 years at this point.

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

The allegations take aim at the heart of Mr. Trump’s personal narrative that he is a successful deal-maker who built a durable business, charging he and his family lent their name to a series of scams.

The 160-page complaint alleges that Mr. Trump and his family received secret payments from three business entities in exchange for promoting them as legitimate opportunities, when in reality they were get-rich-quick schemes that harmed investors, many of whom were unsophisticated and struggling financially.

Those business entities were ACN, a telecommunications marketing company that paid Mr. Trump millions of dollars to endorse its products; the Trump Network, a vitamin marketing enterprise; and the Trump Institute, which the suit said offered “extravagantly priced multiday training seminars” on Mr. Trump’s real estate “secrets.”

The four plaintiffs, who were identified only with pseudonyms like Jane Doe, depict the Trump Organization as a racketeering enterprise that defrauded thousands of people for years as the president turned from construction to licensing his name for profit. The suit also names Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump as defendants.

…

But the new suit alleges “a pattern of racketeering activity” involving three other organizations. Roberta A. Kaplan and Andrew G. Celli Jr., two lawyers for the plaintiffs, said in a statement that they were not aware of “any prior case against the Trumps alleging consumer fraud on this scale.”

“This case connects the dots at the Trump Organization and involves systematic fraud that spanned more than a decade, involved multiple Trump businesses and caused tremendous harm to thousands of hardworking Americans,” the statement said.

…

The four plaintiffs each invested in ACN after watching promotional videos featuring Mr. Trump.

According to the lawsuit, ACN required investors to pay $499 to sign up to sell its products, like a videophone and other services, with the promise of additional profits if they recruited others to join.

Mr. Trump described the phone in an ACN news release as “amazing” but failed to disclose he was being “paid lavishly for his endorsement,” the suit says.

One plaintiff, a hospice worker from California identified as “Jane Doe,” decided to join ACN in 2014 after attending a recruitment meeting at a Los Angeles hotel where she listened to speakers and watched Mr. Trump on video extol the investment opportunity.

For her, the video was the “turning point,” the lawsuit said.

“Doe believed that Trump had her best interests at heart,” the suit said.

Jane Doe then signed up for a larger ACN meeting in Palm Springs, Calif., which cost almost $1,500, and she later spent thousands more traveling to conventions in Cleveland and Detroit, according to the suit.

In the end, she earned $38 — the only income she would ever receive from the company, the suit said.

Something that’s been missing from the world of Trump corruption lawsuits was an MLM scam.  If you had that on your bingo card, now’s the time to cover that square.

For those of you out there fortunate enough to not know what an MLM is, it’s Multi-Level-Marketing.  This is a kind of business where people try to sell products and the business itself.  Those that get their associates to join their business are also promised a percentage of sales from those people they signed up, and so on and so on.

If this sounds shady AF, that’s because it is.  The MLM phrase is used to describe a slightly legal Pyramid Scheme.  They cannot promise guaranteed revenue streams, and they must focus at least half of their efforts on selling the product and not expanding the business.  I ran across a couple of these in my younger and dumber days.  They can be great opportunities for people getting in on the ground floor, at the very beginning, but are a money pit and scam for everyone else.

So, let’s take multiple pyramid schemes, and licensing deals with a family that will slap their names on anything that had a price tag with it, and what do you get?

Trump Vitamins.  This is like an Onion article that’s writing itself.

They’re also getting sued for running another MLM scam with ACN, a company that sold videoconference tech right as Skype and Smartphones were coming along, and the Trump Institute, an overpriced seminar ploy to teach the “secrets” that Trump has used in the real estate world.

Trump Institute is not to be confused with Trump University, which did THE EXACT SAME FUCKING THING!  Christ, they’re not even original in their scams.

 

RIGHT WING TERRORISM

 

KHASHOGGI & SAUDI ARABIA

 

SCOTUS 

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

Far-right fascist Jair Bolsonaro just won Brazil’s presidential vote. A few thing to know: -His supporters include Bannon, David Duke, & Pat Robertson -He is vehemently anti-LGBT, racist, misogynistic, & anti-immigrant -He wants to jail “leftists” -This is bad 1/

-He said he’d rather his son die than be gay -He advocated for forced sterilization of the poor -He called a congresswoman “too ugly to rape” -He supports military dictatorships -He’s a climate denier -He’s part of a transnational fascist movement

Jason Stanley, author of “How fascism works: the politics of us and them,” is among many who has compared Jair Bolsonaro’s style of fascism to that of Donald Trump. What differentiates them, he says, is that (now president-elect) Bolsonaro is more favorable to violence. 3/

“If your alarm systems haven’t gone off yet, you are probably underestimating the dangers of [Jair Bolsonaro’s] election.”

“Mix up fascist geopolitics, Pat Robertson’s LGBT hate, Bannon’s nationalism and Putin’s shills and you get Jair Bolsonaro, who’s nostalgic for the U.S.-backed dictatorship that tortured and killed thousands of leftists.” –

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

BIGOTRY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

POLLS

 

ELECTION 2018

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Monday.  If it seems like there’s less content here than recent days, that’s because there is.  I got wrapped up in a home repair project that went a little sideways.  It was supposed to take me 10 minutes to replace a ceiling fan with a light fixture.  3 and a half hours later, I completed this 10 minute job.  That also meant that I spent hours working on a project instead of gathering more information for this site.  Which is actually kind of a good thing, since this site can get pretty unwieldy from time to time.

One thing I don’t have in this story is anything on Mueller.  It’s been quiet on that front, with the election coming up next week.  I did see a rumor that some GOP operatives were trying to plant a hit piece on Mueller.  The gist of it is a sexual harassment/assault story that’s being fished out to multiple news outlets, but so far no reputable place is biting.  Sources are flaking, the women involved are saying they’re being paid.  Keep an eye out for this story, and if it does come, be skeptical of the source.  Always ask “what’s the motivation behind the story?”

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 10/26/2018

Friday, October 26, 2018 and the weekend.

 

StrongerThanHate

Yeah, this weekend sucked.  At first, I was only going to have a post covering Friday, then include the weekend with Monday’s.  That was before Saturday morning.  That was before I saw the unmarked police car on a Code 3 alert blasting through the Liberty Tunnels.  That was before I saw the SWAT team van driving at full speed down the Parkway.  That was before I saw a few other police cars heading to the city at breakneck speed.

As I’ve said before, I’m from Pittsburgh.  So this shit hits home.  I’ve worked in Squirrel Hill, shopped there, ate there. Hell, I’ve worked at the Tree of Life Synagogue years ago on a service call.  I don’t think I knew anyone involved, but this is way too fucking close for comfort.

This was supposed to be a post talking about domestic terrorism and how a tragedy was narrowly avoided, but that we need to stay vigilant to avert disaster in the future, and how crazy things can get going forward.  Instead, it’s already crazy.  We need to keep focused, and get through the next few days, organize, and vote like our lives depend on it.  Because, for a lot of people, they might.

Also, that image at the top of this page is about the most Yinzer way of showing solidarity possible.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Ukrainian oligarch and Paul Manafort associate Dmytro Firtash is one step closer to seeing the inside of a U.S. courtroom.

The European Union Court of Justice issued a ruling on Wednesday denying the possibility for Firtash to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

The ruling removes a final hurdle to Firtash’s extradition to the United States, leaving it up to Austria’s Supreme Court to decide on the oligarch’s deportation.

Firtash’s attorneys wrote in a letter this month that the European court ruling would allow the oligarch’s case to be “quickly” decided.

“Mr. Firtash’s lawyers believe that the Austrian Supreme Court will move quickly and Mr. Firtash could face extradition in a short time frame following the decision by the Court of Justice,” wrote Firtash lawyer Dan Webb in an Oct. 9 letter to Chicago Federal Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer.

Firtash, a Ukrainian oligarch known alternately for acting as middleman in a scheme to jack up gas prices for European customers and for ordering Manafort to scout out an $850 million New York City real estate opportunity, has been awaiting extradition to federal court in Chicago since his arrest in Austria in March 2014.

Firtash, who prosecutors have alleged is “an upper-echelon” member of Russian organized crime, was indicted on foreign bribery charges relating to a scheme to gain rights to mine titanium in India for use in Boeing’s supply chain.

Vice President Pence told NBC News Saturday that he has not been interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller‘s team as part of its investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

The comment comes more than a month after Pence said he would be “more than willing” to sit down with the special counsel.

“Have you been interviewed by the special counsel’s office?” NBC’s Vaughn Hillyard asked Pence during a wide-ranging interview aired on Sunday.

“I have not,” Pence replied.

 

MAGABOMBER

Good thread by fmr. GOP strategist and McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt:

Whether Cesar Sayoc is sick or evil or maybe a bit of both will become clearer in the days ahead. Certainly he was a loser. A loser who latched onto Trump’s cult of personality and virtuous victimhood. His failures could be explained by the conspiracies and minorities who were stealing his entitlement. He fell in line behind his avenger, a dime store Mussolini who assaults the institutions of our country, divides the American people, demagogues every issue, emboldens white supremacists and lies thousands of times a year. They were not lies though. Objective reality crumbled in his mind. What was true was what his leader believed or said. That was enough. It was he that the billion dollar anger and propaganda industry was targeting. When Gingrich smirked into the camera that it was all about Kavanaugh and the Caravan it was the Sayocs of the world he was talking to. Trump ignited a passion in him to serve. He decided to be a soldier and a terrorist and strike back against the enemies, criminals and saboteurs who were stealing America. They were Trumps enemies. And so they were his. He would strike at the traitors, the enemies of the people. Trump winked at the violence. He knew Trump was right. There were good people on both sides in Charlottesville. The country was soon to be invaded by the Caravan. He decided to become an assasin. He would do what had to be done to enemies of the people. He would kill them by mailing bombs to them. All of them. All of Trumps enemies. He launched a massive assassination plot and tried to kill 2 former Presidents and many more. It was not enough for him to drive around in his van festooned with images of Trump anymore. He heard the message. Trump incites and inflames. He is a tribal chief at war. He is as illiberal as he is vile, corrupt and inept. He created the dystopian alternate reality where this loser lived. This is reality.

 

TREE OF LIFE SHOOTING

 

KHASHOGGI & SAUDI ARABIA

 

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

 

SCOTUS 

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

Fuck that, and fuck you Pence.  You homophobic, bigoted piece of goat excrement.  You are the worst kind of Christian.  You hide behind your religion as a shield for all of your hatreds, claiming that it’s “God’s will” that others not like you should suffer.

Oh, and Mueller hasn’t talked to you yet because you are a fucking suspect in a treason investigation.  Traitor.

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

BIGOTRY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

ELECTION 2018

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

RUMOR MILL

I think people are underrating just how colossally screwed Trump will be if/when the Dems win the House. [THREAD]

1/ All of the committees will be chaired by Democrats. Schiff at Intelligence. Nadler at Judiciary. Cummings at Oversight. Waters at Financial Services. These Committees have the power to investigate, serve subpoenas, and keep the spotlight on the crimes of Trump and his cronies.

2/ For example, Wilbur Ross, the Commerce Secretary and a horrible human being who looks like the melted-face Nazi from Raiders of the Lost Ark, will suddenly find himself in a world of trouble. This stuff will no longer fly:

3/ Nadler has not forgotten about Brett Kavanaugh, and Mark Judge WILL be called to testify about that Beach Week night. Kavanaugh can be impeached, too, and will.

4/ I CAN’T WAIT to watch systematically destroy . It will be like in Pac-Man, where Pac-Man eats the magic dot and can go chase down the ghosts. The Putin asset Nunes will wind up in prison or in exile in Baku.

5/ In short, the Congress that has abrogated its duty to check presidential power is a *GOP* Congress. A Dem Congress will have no qualms about draining the swamp, for realz, and fulfilling its Constitutional obligations.

6/ Then there’s the matter of impeachment. Spoiler alert: no matter what they say on the stump, a Dem Congress WILL impeach Trump, on any one of a dozen potential charges. It takes a simple majority vote PER CHARGE to move the process along.

7/ After the House votes to impeach Trump on X number of charges, the Senate conducts an investigation and holds a trial. THERE IS NO WAY IN HELL TRUMP WILL EVER LET THAT HAPPEN. Allowing himself to testify, under oath, when he knows he’s guilty af?

8/ No, Trump will resign, as Nixon did, before it gets that far. It’s the only way he can control the narrative. By then, Mueller’s report may well be done, and Trump’s son and son-in-law indicted.

28 replies189 retweets870 likes

9/ The week ahead is going to be batshit. Trump is well aware that his only chance now is to flood the zone with crap and hope voters get ennui and stay away from the polls. Because if the House flips, Trump is done. The Senate would be nice, but isn’t necessary.

So: eyes on the prize, folks. , because if we flip enough seats, the blue will wash away the orange stain on our democracy. Ten more days, folks. Get out and make it so, because the future of our republic depends on it. [END]

PS Please keep the defeatist talk off my feed. All it does is make people lethargic by making them feel depressed and hopeless, which is exactly what Putin wants.

 

 

That’s it for the last few days.  It’s been rough.  Monday’s post will be shorter.  I didn’t spend a lot of time researching it.  Plus, I spent a lot of time laughing at NFL news.  The Browns fired Hue Jackson and Todd Haley.  I spent more time than I should have laughing at that.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 10/25/2018

Thursday, October 25, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Why yes, yes he did. (Daily Check-In 02/26/2018, Daily Check-In 12/08/2017)

Part of me is trying to figure out if George Papadopoulos is just a dumb mother fucker by himself, or if that “Italian” wife of his is telling him to say these things.

 

MAGABOMBER

As I mentioned yesterday (Daily Check-In 10/24/2018 ), more devices were found.  This time sent to Robert DeNiro and Joe Biden.

I hope they catch this guy soon.

SPOILER ALERT: They caught him on Friday.

 

KHASHOGGI & SAUDI ARABIA

Following the WWE’s announcement that they are continuing with the show in Saudi Arabia, I have cancelled my WWE Network membership.  It was set to renew automatically on November 1.  From now on, the WWE has entered the realm of “I’ll only pay for months with a good show, and I have to REALLY be in the mood to watch.”  I’ve kept the account active for three and a half years straight, and signed up for it on launch day, with the on-and-off-again payments for a year or so.  Now, with this show, I’ve moved WWE from my first tier of entertainment payments like Netflix to the second tier like CBS All Access, where I only pay when there is something I feel the need to watch.

I know I’m a bit of a hypocrite, but I pick my battles when I can.  Not giving them money the day they put on this show is one of those battles that I can win.

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

That just leaves me smiling :).

SCOTUS 

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

The non-partisan Pew Research Center surveyed 5,000 people, presenting them with 10 statements — five of which were factual, and five mere opinion – asking them to identify each. Across the board, people age 49 and under more accurately separated fact from pretense of fact. Or to put it less politely, those 50 and older were decidedly more gullible.

The reason, researchers speculate, is that younger people are more digitally savvy, and thus have more finely tuned bullshit meters. They’re also considerably more educated and less likely to identify with a specific party, meaning they’re less prone to confuse doctrine for truth.

This presents a problem for Republicans. As a general rule, the older you are, the more conservative you’re likely to be. Which leads us to a second study by Britain’s famed Oxford University.

Researchers there monitored 47,000 U.S. Facebook pages and 13,500 Twitter accounts, tracking who was mostly likely to read or peddle “junk news,” defined as sites that “deliberately publish misleading, deceptive or incorrect information.”

Their findings: “Hard-right” conservatives shared more fake news stories than all other groups combined. Despite their protestations, they’re also the largest consumers of fake news.

Combine the two studies, and one might conclude that conservatives aren’t propagating fraud on purpose. They simply can’t tell the difference. And that’s reflected in their choice of news outlets.

When Fairleigh Dickinson University researchers tried to equate civic knowledge with various news sources, it asked people basic questions like, “Which party has the most seats in the House of Representatives?”

Viewers of Fox News, the televised arm of the GOP, scored at the bottom of 30 popular news sources. In fact, the survey found that viewers of Fox were less informed than people who followed no news at all.

So, dear reader, the next time you see online commenters talk of “crisis actors,” the “deep state,” or migrant gangs coming to take Minnesota’s lake homes, show some mercy. They know not what they speak.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve noticed that there are a lot people out there who don’t know how to think critically about what they’re being told.  They don’t know how to analyze evidence, or investigate stories and head to the source, or ask “Am I being bullshitted to?”

50 is an interesting age for this study.  People that are 50 or older didn’t grow up with the Internet.  They likely didn’t grow up with computers at all.  I was a teenager when the Internet came to houses for the first time in any real push.  I was the first person on my street on the Internet.  I was 16, and this was the mid-90’s.  Google didn’t exist, Yahoo! was just launched, so finding a website was difficult.  I had to dive through forums just to find primitive internet porn.  And downloading low-quality JPEG’s with a 14.4k modem was all we had.

I grew up in the Wild West of the Internet.  I knew that the person wanting to cyber with me claiming to be a teen girl was likely some 38 year old guy pushing 300 pounds. I learned to be cautious of every claim someone made online, and not to trust anyone.  I grew up with blogs and biased websites claiming to be news sites that pushed their narrative and agenda.  I grew up with social media, and learned pretty quickly that if someone sent me a friend request with a beautiful woman on the profile pic, it was almost always a scam artist or some bot wanting me to sign up for their cam show.

I also grew up in the Post-Fairness Doctrine world, where media companies no longer had to provide “both sides” of a political story and could spout one side’s opinion as “news.”  I grew up with Cable News, where Fox News slowly disintegrated actual news and replaced it with opinion news.  I grew up in a world where the entire “News Talk” radio world was filled with Right Wing talking heads like Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, and the rest.  I listened as shock jocks gave way to “freedom fighters on the airwaves” that were suspiciously silent on crimes in the White House when a Republican was in the White House.

I grew up with this shit.  Older people didn’t.  They didn’t have a reason to question their media.  They grew up in a sheltered world with only a few channels, trusted newsmen, and people that genuinely seemed interested in informing them.  They didn’t pay attention as the world they grew up in slipped away, and was replaced with the modern world.  They didn’t grow up with the Nigerian Prince asking them to help with a money transfer or a Twitter bot asking them to sign up for their cam show.  They didn’t have to slog through the recesses of the Internet talking to people making crazy claims without proof.  They didn’t have to question “Why is this person or outlet telling me this story, but the other place is telling me something different?”

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

I’ve heard this argument many times before, and it carries less water than a pasta strainer, but it revolves completely around misinformation and obfuscation.

First, the number of scientists that “can’t agree” is tiny.  Between 97-99% percent of climate scientists agree that climate change is real, it’s being accelerated by people, and it’s bad.  That 1-3% is THE FUCKING MARGIN OF ERROR.  Take a room of 50 people and ask them if they like to eat dog food.  There will be that one guy in the room that will raise his hands.  THAT’S THE GUY THAT DOESN’T AGREE WITH THE OTHER SCIENTISTS.

Second, the level of disagreement is small.  Real fucking small.  Much smaller than shown in the media.  The scientists that are arguing the degree of difference, not whether or not there is a difference.  It’s like walking into a sports bar and hearing two football fans arguing about what is the best defense to call against a Run Pass Option offense, and coming to the conclusion that football isn’t real.

 

ELECTION 2018

 

RUMOR MILL

Holding Trump accountable for his rhetoric, lies, & corruption is not hateful or an act of social division. It’s the absolute duty of the free press. Further, MSM press must also now consider and investigate HOW & WHY the President is so adept at Russian propaganda techniques. /1

2/ Consider that he’s not some great “brand” genius. Consider he’s a propagandist, who has been trained in the art of “Whataboutism” aka false equivalency, weaponized projection (directly accuse the other of that which you are guilty) aka conspiracy, & de-humanization aka hate.

6 replies265 retweets779 likes

3/ All three of those techniques – false equivalency, conspiracy, & hate – are the cornerstones of Russian propaganda. And propaganda IS a weapon of war. It’s THE weapon of choice for Russia: both the Russia of today and the former Soviet Union. They have PERFECTED it. And…

4/ They train their political operatives in it. They do. Considering the 30+ year history of Russian intelligence operatives in Donald’s life – LIVING IN HIS OWN BUILDINGS – we MUST consider that Trump has been trained in this art.                                           Craig Unger: Untold Story Of Trump, Soviet/Russia Partnership; Russian Mafia Laundered Money Via… Author Craig Unger talked about his new book, ‘House of Trump, House of Putin,’ Trump’s historical ties to Russia, and how the American president and Putin “are bound by more than just an authorita… realclearpolitics.com          

5/ I get that this conversation is uncomfortable for some in MSM press. I watch them get bored & frustrated when folks like me keep bringing the events of this Presidency back to Russia. I get that they don’t get it. That they can’t, or won’t, grasp this narrative. But…

6/ WE MUST NOT LET THIS GO. If we do, we are missing the real danger – the very real truths – behind the moment we’re not just living thru, but struggling to survive. Here’s what the weapon of propaganda is designed to accomplish: A) Social division to the end point of violence

2 replies235 retweets640 likes

7/ There’s just no way now, today, that anyone can argue the end point of Trump’s rhetoric is violence. It will continue to happen. Because there is always an unstable individual out there who will take things that far. And with the rise of hate groups across our nation…

8/ The violence will continue to grow and be organized. Scary times, indeed. The second goal of propaganda is: B) Obfuscation/ distraction. Ah… that’s the ticket for Trump. AND for Putin. This is where it gets real personal for the two of them. This is about their money.

9/ When chaos is fomented by corrupt leaders, we are distracted from seeing their corruption. That’s how it works. That’s the “WHY” of propaganda. Propaganda is generally released & accelerated by corrupt officials during times when investigations into their corruption…

10/ …by law enforcement & the press – are intensifying.                                          Manafort has reportedly visited Mueller’s office 9 times over the past month, for hours at a time Paul Manafort is the special counsel Robert Mueller’s most significant cooperating witness to date, and his frequent trips to Mueller’s office indicate the Russia investigation is not slowing down… businessinsider.com       

11/

Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father The president has long sold himself as a self-made billionaire, but a Times investigation found that he received at least $413 million in today’s dolla… nytimes.com       

12/ So, what do we do about this? First, recognize what is going on, and that each of US – right, center, left – is an equal target of this weapon. This weapon only works when we tear each other apart, then dissolve in apathy.

13/ Second, READ & LEARN about propaganda and other tactics of the Russian state, like the history & use of organized crime (the mob) and the mechanics of Active Measures. Once you learn about it, you can pull yourself out of the outrage machine & help…

14/ … hold the corrupt accountable by adding your voice to that fight. Right now, many of us are just screaming into the machine. That does not work. Find journalists who are pursuing Trump’s corruption. Follow, support, & encourage them.

15/ Exposing the hate machine that Trump & built and thrive off of is part of that. Follow journalists like . He is damn good at exposing the hate operation. Remember, that hate is propaganda. Exposing the mechanics of the hate machine is how we’ll dismantle it.

16/ Third and most important, REJECT those “journalists” & news outlets that are profiting off the outrage. They are enabling and enhancing the propaganda. REJECT access journalism, when you see the press pool only chasing shiny objects or fluffing themselves on palace intrigue.

2 replies140 retweets437 likes

17/ REJECT that sh*t. DEMAND to know about the corruption. STAY ON THE MONEY. Do you really think all of this chaos, and violence, and hate is about anything else? Wake up, America. We’re being swindled by professional criminals, who control the powers of nation states. – END –

 

 

That’s it for Thursday.  Like I said earlier, at the time of this writing, the MAGABomber has been caught, and… he’s everything that was expected.  A 56-year old from Florida who drove around in a white van festooned with hundreds of Pro-Trump stickers, including several with what can best be described as a manifesto.

Hopefully I’ll have Friday’s post up late Friday night or Saturday.  That being said, expect it Sunday or Monday.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

 

Daily Check-In 10/24/2018

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

We’ve talked about this a while back, and it was a running joke in Rick Wilson’s book, but Trump uses an old, unsecured iPhone to talk to his “friends” like Sean Hannity.  What are the odds that a foreign government figured out how to listen in on those conversations?

About 100 fucking percent.  Now, we have proof.

U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller pushed back against a company owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch known as “Putin’s chef,” telling a federal judge that the charges filed against the firm — conspiracy to defraud the U.S. — aren’t dependent on proving that election interference is a crime.

The company, Concord Management and Consulting, and 13 Russian nationals, including Prigozhin, were charged in February with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. by mounting social media campaigns in 2016 designed to help the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, and hurt his competitor, Hillary Clinton, a Democrat. The indictment also included charges of wire fraud and identity theft, as the Russians allegedly adopted American identities as part of their effort to influence the election.

Neither Prigozhin nor the other Russian nationals have responded to the charges, but Concord Management has fought back. The company’s lawyer, Eric Dubelier of Reed Smith, has argued that Concord’s failure to register as a foreign agent or report campaign-related expenditures doesn’t constitute a crime.

Last week, the federal judge overseeing the case asked Mueller’s team to respond to that claim.

Michael Dreeben of the special counsel’s office replied that prosecutors only need to show that Concord and its co-conspirators agreed to engage in conduct that violated their duties to register as foreign agents and report campaign expenditures. “The government is not required to prove that the conspirators actually violated” federal election and campaign finance laws, he wrote.

The February charges described a wide range of coordinated conduct designed to influence voters’ attitudes toward the U.S. presidential candidates.

“The indictment alleges that a purpose of these manifold acts of deception was to frustrate the lawful government functions of the United States,” Dreeben wrote. “Those allegations are sufficient to support the charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States regardless of whether the defendants agreed to engage in conduct that violated” the election and campaign finance laws.

 

 

RIGHT WING TERRORISM: THE MAGABOMBER

There’s too much here to break down into sections in a timely manner while keeping my sanity, so here’s the short, short version.

Following the attempt on George Soros’s life in the last couple days (Daily Check-In 10/22/2018, Daily Check-In 10/23/2018), several other bombs, bomb-like items, and suspicious packages have been sent to several enemies of Trump.  Pipe bombs were sent to Bill and Hilary Clinton’s home, the home of Barack Obama, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, and John Brennan at CNN Headquarters.  Furthermore, suspicious packages were gathered at the San Diego Union-Tribune building where Senator Kamala Harris has an office, and to Representative Maxine Walters.  At the time of this writing on Thursday, three more identical packages were delivered to Joe Biden, Robert DeNiro, and Rachel Maddow.  Another package was sent to Eric Holder, but was instead delivered to Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, the former head of the DNC.  Her office in Sunrise, Florida was the return address for each of these packages.

All of the targets that received these packages had the same return address, the same typos, the same font used on the labels, the same design, and the same paraphernalia.  So far, the bombs have all been duds or fakes, and they’ve been packed with fake ISIS flags that became popular on fringe Right Wing sites, where some of the members thought it was a real ISIS flag, and others thought it looked real enough to scare people.

See below in Spicy’s thread for pics of the CNN bomb and packaging.

Something interesting with the packages in New York, they were hand delivered by couriers, and the stamps were not cancelled.  That means they didn’t go through the normal package routing process, which means no tracking numbers.  It also tells me that this bomber likely has to be close to New York, or has an accomplice close enough to hand deliver them.

The San Diego threat was also interesting.  5 priority mail boxes were dropped off very early in the morning, under the cover of night.  Later on, when someone noticed them, they were examined by the bomb squad.  They were all filled with random junk.  If this was an innocent accident, why drop these boxes off in the middle of the night?

The talking heads on the Right Wing immediately called this whole thing a false flag operation, saying either it was a coordinated hoax or that the Democrats sent themselves bombs.  Funny, they usually blame Muslims first.

I’m hoping the MAGABomber is one lone idiot.  Most of the evidence that I’ve seen points to this, but it’s still early in the investigation.  All of the typos, errors, and “owning the libz” mentality of these attacks SCREAMS a single red hat, but this San Diego connection has me worried.  It’s possible that the MAGABomber talked a friend into staging those packages to scare people and distract them, or they just thought it would be funny.

And let’s be clear, these were not random people, but people Trump has attacked many times before.  His rhetoric, talking about violence, is becoming real.  As much as people will want to trip over their dicks to praise whatever half-hearted call for unity he’ll spout, that Orange Shit-Gibbon will blame the media for these attacks.

What, really? Oh, FOR FUCK’S SAKE!!!

This shit ain’t funny anymore.  Someone is going to get killed because one of his low-IQ deplorables believes everything the Cult of Trump tells him.

 

 

Trump has stoked a cold civil war in this Country. His rallies brim with menace and he has labeled journalists as enemies of the people. That someone would seek to kill their political enemies is not aberrational but rather the inevitable consequence of Trumps incitement.

The targets are political not coincidental. Trump, the greatest demagogue in American history has celebrated violence over and over again. It looks like someone finally took Trump both literally and seriously. The WH will feign outrage when this obvious point is made.

No journalist or commentator should be intimidated from making this point. The stoking of hatred and sundering of the American people was always going to lead to terrible consequences. Chief amongst them would be the initiation of partisan or sectarian violence within our country

 

 

A downtown San Diego building that houses the San Diego Union-Tribune and other businesses was briefly evacuated Wednesday morning after a stack of suspicious looking packages was spotted near the front doors, San Diego police said.

A bystander flagged down a San Diego police lieutenant after spotting five boxes on a table in front of 600 B Street about 8:15 a.m., police said. The building houses law firms, co-working, media and technology companies. Sen. Kamala Harris and the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department also have offices at the address.

The discovery quickly prompted the closure of several busy blocks. But about an hour later, with aid from an X-ray, police determined the packages were filled with everyday items.

San Diego police Lt. Kevin Wadhams said the unaddressed boxes contained: one shoe, two children’s books, one football, one empty bag of chips and one hat. A red air pump was located behind the packages.

 

 

Remember when Trump suggested Clinton would take away the right to bear arms and there wasn’t anything anyone could do. Well, except the second amendment crowd could “do something” to stop her. We’re seeing this morning exactly why Trump’s thinly veiled threats matter. (THREAD)

(2) If there was one rallying cry that galvanized Trump’s base, it would have been the vehement assertion that Hillary Clinton should be punished. His campaign rallies were filled with chants of “Lock Her Up!” and an assortment of more aggressive threats.

(3) Bloodthirsty comments among his inner circle are much harder to dismiss. Al Baldasaro, a Trump campaign adviser from NH, said Clinton should be “put in a firing line and shot for treason.” Roger Stone, a high profile Trump ally, lobbied for Clinton’s death on social media.

(4) Gruesome calls for execution don’t end with Hillary Clinton. Trump’s former butler, Anthony Senecal, was investigated by the Secret Service for his social media posts suggesting Barack Obama should be “shot as an enemy agent.”

(5) Trump’s true passion, however, seems to be inciting violence against the press. During rallies in West Palm Beach Florida, CNN reported swastika emblazoned signs were left in the press box. He’s repeatedly singled out CNN and taunted them with threats of violence.

(6) At Trump rallies, reports he’s often the subject of specific threats. The MSM was shocked by Trump’s comments endorsing violence against reporters at a recent rally, but they went back to trumpeting “leftist mob” rhetoric the next day.

(7) Donald Trump’s gleefully incites violence & the media stands complicit every time they air his rallies & parrot his talking points. The violent leftist mob is a boogeyman Trump conjured to hide behind. The real threat to Americans is this violent, divisive President.

 

Interesting return address: indicate the person who sent this bomb, had/has a certain level of premeditation. Again undetonated devices tend to give law enforcement a ton of evidence. Hence why our State & Federal Law Enforcement are without equal.

📌Soros Bomb had return address of 📌CNN bomb also had the same return address 📌AG Holder bomb – same return address 📌bombs sent to the Obamas & Clintons also had the same address Reasonable hypothesis, the same sender for all bombs.

Florida misspelt Wassermann-Shultz misspelt Brennan misspelt Lordy…

Also should say there’s ZERO reason to believe has anything to do with these bombs. Apologies if I implied that. The perpetrator(s) used her address as the return address, she has nothing to do with this. This is devious & insidious intention for the recipients

Meaning if they saw her return address they would have been more likely to open. The perpetrator(s) intent is clear: 1) kill or horribly injure a lot of people 2) so far targeted w/ Brennan being the exception. 3) odd CNN reports the Soros package didn’t come via USPS.

♦️NEW states “the package sent to their NYC Columbus Cir address was hand delivered by a local Courier not via USPS” Which means that’s two bombs were delivered in person

 

 

 

KHASHOGGI & SAUDI ARABIA

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

 

SCOTUS 

 

#METOO

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

BLATANT BIGOTRY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

ELECTION 2018

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Wednesday.  For a moment, I thought it was going to be a quiet day.  That didn’t last.

I probably won’t have as much for Thursday.  I’m operating on fumes, and need a few hours of sleep.  That might cut into my research, writing, and hypothesizing time.  Sorry about that.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur