Tag: Politics

Daily Check-In 09/14/2018

Friday, September 14, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

MANAFORT FLIPPED!!!!!!!!!!

Paul Manfort, Campaign Chairman for President Donald J. Trump’s election campaign in 2016, pleaded guilty to Witness Tampering Conspiracy and Conspiracy Against the United States in DC District Court.  In addition to this, he also agreed to plead guilty to the leftover charges from his EDVA case that resulted in a hung jury.  As part of this deal, Manafort agrees to cooperate completely with any and all investigations going forward.

Paul Manafort, the go-between for the Trump team and the Russian Mafia, lobbyist for the Party of Regions and Opposition Bloc in Ukraine, advocate for tyrants, criminals, and the most despicable humans of the late 20th and early 21st century, has turned state’s witness.

Paulie Walnuts has flipped on Trump.

This is big, possibly “Game Over” big.  Manafort was involved multiple aspects of the campaign, and directly ties Trump to the Russians.  Manafort was at the June 9th meeting, and also was supposedly at the pre-meeting a couple days earlier with Michael Cohen and Donnie Jr.  (Daily Check-In 07/26/2018). Manafort also organized the change in language at the RNC that softened their stance on Ukraine to favor Russia.

 

Penalties

Manafort’s not getting off with a slap on the wrist.  He’s forfeiting $46 million in assets and cash, including a life insurance policy and 4 homes.  One of those homes is his an apartment in Trump Tower.

The Federal Government now owns property in Trump Tower, and can do with it whatever the fuck they want.  Normally, they would sell this property in an auction, but I’m really hoping they do something else with it, like turn it into a soup kitchen or homeless shelter.  Maybe the John S. McCain III Memorial Veterans Affairs Office?

 

Co-Conspirators

It’s not just Trump who’s shitting bricks right now, but every lobbyist, banker, politician, criminal, tailor, judge, donor, and anyone else who’s ever done anything even slightly shady in the last 30 years is panicking.  Remember how Bob Dole joined the board of AUB? (Daily Check-In 08/28/2018) The playmakers who made that happen are the same people in this mess.

The first up on the shit list are the Hapsburg Group and Greg Craig.  They were specified directly in Manafort’s plea deal.  Craig was a former member of Obama’s White House Counsel’s Office in his first year.  I’m looking forward to the mental gymnastics that will take place to explain Manafort was framed into lying about this, but the Democrat was obviously guilty.

Documents

These are definitely worth a read.

 

Pardon

Before anyone says Trump will just pardon him out of this, I think the window’s closed on that option.  Not only was it a horribly bad idea to begin with (GTKYG-Pardon Limitations), but now the government has what they want from Manafort, and it likely has even more on Trump.

If Trump tried to pardon Manafort now, not only would it screw over Manafort it would obviously be a corrupt and criminal action meant to cover up crimes he’s connected to.

There’s a rumor about a delay that I’ll cover in the Rumor Mill section.

 

Response from the White House

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

 

 

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

 

WOODWARD AND THE ANONYMOUS OP-ED

  

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

  

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

SCOTUS

On Thursday, Senate Democrats disclosed that they had referred a complaint regarding President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, to the F.B.I. for investigation. The complaint came from a woman who accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct when they were both in high school, more than thirty years ago.

The woman, who has asked not to be identified, first approached Democratic lawmakers in July, shortly after Trump nominated Kavanaugh. The allegation dates back to the early nineteen-eighties, when Kavanaugh was a high-school student at Georgetown Preparatory School, in Bethesda, Maryland, and the woman attended a nearby high school. In the letter, the woman alleged that, during an encounter at a party, Kavanaugh held her down, and that he attempted to force himself on her. She claimed in the letter that Kavanaugh and a classmate of his, both of whom had been drinking, turned up music that was playing in the room to conceal the sound of her protests, and that Kavanaugh covered her mouth with his hand. She was able to free herself. Although the alleged incident took place decades ago and the three individuals involved were minors, the woman said that the memory had been a source of ongoing distress for her, and that she had sought psychological treatment as a result.

 

 

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

HURRICANES

 

ENVIRONMENT AND SCIENCE

 

ELECTION 2018

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Friday.  This was one hell of a day.  Like I said earlier, there’s a rumor going around about a delay showing up at the courthouse.

According to some reports, Paul Manafort’s team and the Special Counselor’s team arrived at the courthouse earlier in the morning, around 9:00 to 9:30, but didn’t appear before Judge Berman until an hour an a half later, around 11:00AM.  While this delay isn’t completely unheard of, one rumor going around is that Manafort was led into the Grand Jury convened for the Russian Investigation and was asked some questions, specifically about the June 9 meeting and whether or not Trump knew about it ahead of time.  That way, in case Trump tried a pardon, they would already have Manafort’s information on record.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 09/13/2018

Thursday, September 13, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

It looks like Friday’s going to be one hell of a day for Manafort and Mueller news.

Before the National Rifle Association dropped hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to flip a competitive, Democratic-held Senate seat, the gun-rights group’s chief lobbyist apparently gave the race’s Republican challenger a heads-up.

Chris Cox, the top political strategist for the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA), assured Montana Republican Matt Rosendale that the group would spend heavily to support his bid to unseat Sen. Jon Tester, Rosendale told attendees at a July event in Washington.

PAY DIRT exclusively obtained audio of Rosendale’s remarks, which good-government groups say raise serious questions of potentially illicit coordination between Rosendale and an independent political group supporting his campaign.

“I fully expect the NRA is going to come in… in August sometime,” Rosendale said in response to a question about independent political spenders in the race. “The Supreme Court confirmations are big. That’s what sent the NRA over the line. Because in ’12, with [Republican Senate nominee Denny Rehberg] they stayed out, they stayed out of Montana. But Chris Cox told me, he’s like, ‘We’re going to be in this race.’”

Rosendale was slightly off in terms of timing, but the NRA did come through as Cox apparently promised. Early this month, the group spent more than $400,000 on ads hitting Tester over the precise issue that Rosendale mentioned—the senator’s votes on Supreme Court nominations.

Rosendale’s remarks are potentially problematic, as the NRA-ILA, a 501(c)(4) “dark-money” group, is legally barred from coordinating its ad buys with a federal campaign. As explained by nonprofit tax law attorney Holly Schadler, illegal coordination may occur “if the organization has substantial discussions with the campaign about an expenditure, or if the organization informs the campaign about a planned communication related to the campaign and the campaign signals its agreement with the suggestion to make that communication.”

The NRA, who was working with the Russians, coordinated political ads with a senate candidate in Montana in the summer of 2016.

It might not seem like it’s connected at first, if it wasn’t for ALL of the Russian connections to the NRA.

 

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

 

WOODWARD AND THE ANONYMOUS OP-ED

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

MENTAL STATE

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

SCOTUS

 

BOSTON

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS

 

#METOO

 

HURRICANES AND THE ENVIRONMENT

So, they’re sending half a million cans of Bud Light and Coors Light?

 

ELECTION 2018

 

dark money spending

  1. U.S. Chamber of Commerce
  2. Crossroads GPS
  3. Americans for Prosperity
  4. National Rifle Association
  5. American Future Fund
  6. American Action Network
  7. League of Conservative Voters
  8. National Association of Realtors
  9. Americans for Job Security
  10. 45Committee
  11. Americans for Tax Reform
  12. Patriot Majority USA
  13. 60 Plus Association
  14. VoteVets Action Fund
  15. Planned Parenthood Action Fund

According to FactCheck.org, all of them except Patriot Majority USA, VoteVets, and Planned Parenthood are Conservative/Republican groups.  Not a single Liberal/Democratic group cracked the Top 10.  The NRA spent more than the Liberal groups did combined.  Also, look at the groups and what they focus on.  Free trade, tax cuts for the wealthy, gun sales, and home construction.

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

 

 

That’s it for Thursday.  Friday looks big, as some major Paul Manafort news is coming down the pipe.  It’s almost like I’m typing this on a Friday afternoon, just hours after the information came out.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 09/12/2018

Wednesday, September 12, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

 But secret documents reviewed by BuzzFeed News reveal a previously undisclosed aspect of the meeting: a complex web of financial transactions among some of the planners and participants who moved money from Russia and Switzerland to the British Virgin Islands, Bangkok, and a small office park in New Jersey.

The documents show Aras Agalarov, a billionaire real estate developer close to both Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, at the center of this vast network and how he used accounts overseas to filter money to himself, his son, and at least two people who attended the Trump Tower meeting. The records also offer new insight into the murky financial world inhabited by many of Trump’s associates, who use shell companies and secret bank accounts to quickly and quietly move money across the globe.

Now, four federal law enforcement officials told BuzzFeed News, investigators are focused on two bursts of transactions that bank examiners deemed suspicious: one a short time after the meeting and another immediately after the November 2016 presidential election.

The first set came just 11 days after the June 9 meeting, when an offshore company controlled by Agalarov wired more than $19.5 million to his account at a bank in New York.

The second flurry began shortly after Trump was elected. The Agalarov family started sending what would amount to $1.2 million from their bank in Russia to an account in New Jersey controlled by the billionaire’s son, pop singer Emin Agalarov, and two of his friends. The account had been virtually dormant since the summer of 2015, according to records reviewed by BuzzFeed News, and bankers found it strange that activity in Emin Agalarov’s checking account surged after Trump’s victory.

After the election, that New Jersey account sent money to a company controlled by Irakly “Ike” Kaveladze, a longtime business associate of the Agalarovs and their representative at the Trump Tower meeting. Kaveladze’s company, meanwhile, had long funded a music business set up by the person who first proposed the meeting to the Trump camp, Emin Agalarov’s brash British publicist, Rob Goldstone.

…

Bankers were suspicious for a number of reasons. For one, Kaveladze was an employee of the Agalarovs’ Crocus Group, their sprawling construction and real estate empire based in Russia. Why, bankers wondered, would the funds start in Russia, briefly make a pit stop in Emin Agalarov’s New Jersey account, and finally be sent to Corsy International? Balber, the attorney for Kaveladze and the Agalarovs, would not address questions about specific transactions, but said they were all legitimate.

Second, bankers noted that Kaveladze — who after the election pushed for an additional get-together with the Trumps and some of the original Tower meeting participants — had previously been investigated for money laundering. According to a Government Accountability Office report published in 2000, Kaveladze established more than 2,000 corporations in Delaware for Russian real estate brokers, then set up bank accounts for them in the US. The brokers used these accounts to launder about $1.4 billion, the report found. Kaveladze was never charged with a crime and he referred to the GAO’s probe as a “witch hunt.”

Finally, bankers focused on the New Jersey address of Corsy International: a small, windowless office in an unremarkable building near the Hudson River. It was suspicious, officials reported, that such large sums flowed through such a nondescript location. When examiners began investigating this address, they discovered at least eight other companies located there, all of them controlled by Kaveladze, Emin Agalarov, or their associates.

The headquarters for these companies is Suite 309. There is no sign on the door. When a reporter visited last month, a man refused to open the door and said he was unable to talk or even accept a business card.

But in July 2017, after the New York Times broke the news of the Trump Tower meeting, there was another flurry of financial activity. This time, it centered around the man who first reached out to the Trump campaign — Rob Goldstone, Emin Agalarov’s publicist.

…

During his congressional testimony, Goldstone said that Emin Agalarov was his only client. But he said he didn’t know the “chain of command” of who paid him.

The documents reviewed by BuzzFeed News show that most of the funds flowing into Goldstone’s music business, Oui 2 Entertainment, and his personal checking account came from Corsy International, Kaveladze’s company. Between July 2015 and January 2017, Oui 2 received more than half a million dollars from Corsy International. Bank examiners found this suspicious because Corsy was an import-export business, while Oui 2 was involved with music. It didn’t make sense, bankers reported, for these two companies to conduct transactions with one another.

Bankers were also concerned that Goldstone set up the meeting and received money through Kaveladze, who had previously been investigated for money laundering involving Russians.

While they couldn’t explain these transfers, bankers flagged additional suspicious behavior in Goldstone’s account shortly after the Trump Tower meeting came to light.

By July 24, 2017, about two weeks after the New York Times broke the story about the meeting, Goldstone had left for Bangkok. He told congressional investigators that he wanted to take time off, equating it to a college student’s “gap year,” so he could write a book. But bank officials questioned his financial behavior there, particularly a series of 37 ATM withdrawals totaling about $8,400. The last of those withdrawals was made in November 2017. His business partner, David Tominello, appears to have traveled to Bangkok as well, making 51 withdrawals during the same period for about $7,600. Bankers noted that the withdrawals came shortly after news broke about Goldstone’s role in the Trump Tower meeting.

On Aug. 31, 2017, while they were still overseas, Goldstone and Tominello tapped into a home equity line of credit to withdraw money. The two received the loan on an apartment in New Jersey and used the funds to transfer about $32,000 to Oui 2. Examiners said the two men were essentially using a loan to make “payroll,” which bankers thought was unusual, especially when they had such a lucrative source of income through Kaveladze’s company. They also found it “concerning” that the home equity line of credit funded ATM cash withdrawals in Bangkok.

Four Federal Law Enforcement Officials? Assuming that it’s not 4 people on a team all talking to the reporter at once, this is huge. BFN got 4 people to go on the record for this, and they have enough detailed information to trace the cash flow.

The money flow itself is incriminating enough, but combined with the dates, then Team Trump is screwed. June 20th is right after the Trump Tower meeting, the day that Manafort was named the Campaign Chairman, and before any changes were made to the Republican Party platform regarding Ukraine. The second time, November 21st, is right after the election, and right when Michael Cohen started accepting bribes for Trump. Manafort was closing on his fraudulent loan around this time, too.

So, the guy that worked with Trump to host Miss Universe in Moscow and get on Putin’s good side made a lot of suspicious, large payments right around the time of the meeting, and they expect us to believe this is all coincidental?

 

WOODWARD AND THE ANONYMOUS OP-ED

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

POLLS

 

SCOTUS

Q&A

Collins

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

STUDENT LOANS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

DRUGS

 

PRIESTS

 

#METOO

 

HURRICANES

 

ENVIRONMENT

 

ELECTION 2018

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

I recommend checking this thread out.  She links to a few of the threads I talked about yesterday (Daily Check-In 09/11/2018), as well as some new ones.  She talks about how to explain the Weaponized Craziness to others.  It’s important that we do going forward.  This shit is too crazy for most people.

 

That’s it for Wednesday.  It’s a little lighter than normal, things are little nuts in the real world today.  I hope to get back to a slight level of normalcy for Thursday and Friday.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 09/11/2018

Tuesday, September 11, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Days before in-person jury ­selection is set to begin in his second trial, President Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort is in talks with the special counsel’s office about a possible plea deal, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions.

The people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to ­describe the conversations, cautioned that the negotiations may not result in a deal with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is prosecuting Manafort for alleged money laundering and lobbying violations.

But the discussions indicate a possible shift in strategy for Manafort, who earlier this year chose to go to trial in Virginia, only to be convicted last month in Alexandria federal court on eight counts of bank and tax fraud. He had derided his former business partner, Rick Gates, for striking a deal with prosecutors that provided him leniency in exchange for testimony against Manafort.

“I had hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence,” Manafort said in February.

This is the third or fourth report about Manafort negotiating a flip in as many days.  This leads me to think there’s something to this.  That, and he’s already a convicted felon looking at a long prison sentence.  At this point, the negotiations center around what he pleads guilty to, how long he servers, will he cooperate, or does he have anything to give?

WASHINGTON – Donald Trump Jr. said Tuesday he is not afraid of going to jail as the result of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

“I’m not because I know what I did, and I’m not worried about any of that,” the president’s eldest son said during an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America. “That doesn’t mean they won’t try to create something, I mean, we’ve seen that happen with everything. But, again, I’m not.”

He said he would “deal with it as it comes.”

Trump Jr. is reportedly being investigated by Mueller because he agreed to take a meeting with a Kremlin-connected attorney in June 2016 at Trump Tower to get “dirt” on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. It is a violation of federal law for an American campaign to solicit or accept anything of value from a foreign national.

Donald Trump, Jr. is the dumbest person named Donald Trump.  This is the same brainiac that decided the best way to clear his name and eliminate speculation about him colluding with the Russians was to release the email chain showing him setting up a meeting with the Russians.

This latest round of stupidity might be because he believes he did nothing wrong, that consequences don’t apply to him, or that Daddy will keep him out of jail with a pardon.  Small problem with that theory, Donnie.  It’s called state charges.  New York is looking into the Trump Foundation for multiple crimes.  Plus there’s a half a dozen other states at least that have some level of jackfuckery they’d like to do to him.

 

WOODWARD AND THE ANONYMOUS OP-ED

 

9/11

Today

Retrospective Pieces

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET – THE 9/11 EDITION

There’s a little more down in the Rumor Mill section.

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

Sen. Jeff Merkley released a document Tuesday showing a transfer of nearly $10 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and accused President Donald Trump’s administration of diverting funds from hurricane relief just as hurricane season was starting.

However, the document from the Department of Homeland Security specifically mentions the money would come from the agency’s budgets for travel, training, public engagement and information technology work. The department denies that the money came from disaster relief funding.
Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, said on MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show” that the administration is taking money from “response and recovery” and “working hard to find funds for additional detention camps.”
“I would dispute the statement that this has no bearing on … addressing the challenges from hurricanes,” Merkley said.
CNN received a copy of the document from Merkley’s office. It details the effects the transfer would have on FEMA’s operations and from where in the budget the money would come.
“FEMA will curtail training, travel, public engagement sessions, IT security support and infrastructure maintenance, and IT investments in the legacy grants systems for transition to the Grants Management Modernization Program,” the document reads.
Merkley was one of the first lawmakers to bring the family separation crisis on the southern border of the United States into pubic view, when he tried to visit a detention facility in June and was turned away. He has continued to be a critical voice on the Trump administration’s immigration policy, which included separating families at the border when the administration decided to criminally detain individuals caught crossing the border illegally.

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

  

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

 FIXING THE INTERNET

 

SCOTUS

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

POLLS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

HURRICANES

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

ELECTION 2018

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

RUMOR MILL

9/11 Rumors

Today’s the anniversary of the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor.  Possibly worse, since this targeted civilians, using civilians as weapons.  It’s also the day where every man, woman, and child wearing a Tin-Foil Hat comes out and espouses their favorite conspiracy theories about what happened.  In 17 years, I’ve heard them all, and I’m ashamed to admit it, but I gave credence to a couple of them over the years.  This was also in my younger days when I did a fucktonne of drugs and hadn’t studied Logic or Critical Thinking yet.  I was also a Libertarian and listened to InfoWars and Coast to Coast, too.

That said, read those threads with a heavy dose of skepticism.  Fuck that whole “keep an open mind” bullshit.  I hate that phrase.  That phrase might as well say “my batshit insane quackery is so fucking batshit insane that if you analyzed even the smallest piece of it, you’d realize that I’m a fucking conman, but instead of acknowledging that I’m trying to rip you off or fool you, I’ll blame your ‘preconceptions and biases’ and guilt trip you into buying my health supplements after making you feel guilty by somehow making you feel like an ass for questioning my batshit insane quackery.”  There’s a world of difference between keeping an open mind to analyze new claims and facts, and keeping your mind so open that your brain falls out and is replaced with Alternative Medicine claims, brochures about the Moon Landing, and cherry-picked evidence about how jet fuel can’t melt steel beams.

These threads, two from sources I’ve seen floating around from time to time and one from a trusted source, take three different paths, analyzing three different sets of information, and each coming to the same conclusion:

The Russians, specifically Russian Mafia like Semion Mogilivech and the Russian Government, had at least an indirect role, if not a direct role, in the terrorist attack on New York City in 2001, as well as a major role in the events that followed, such as the dissemination of disinformation and propaganda regarding the attack in the years that followed.

I think I might have a new record for the craziest thing I’ve ever typed.  And I’ve typed some crazy shit on this blog.

This is in no way to say that Osama Bin Ladn wasn’t the mastermind of the attack, or that it wasn’t carried out by Al Qaeda.  That shit happened, and I’m disputing any of that.  I’m going back to before that, and following these threads to the days and years before the attack.

What do we know?  After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia went to hell in a handbasket pretty quickly.  The government was in shambles, their economy was a joke, and basic services were up in the air.  There was one group that came out of this smelling like roses: the Russian Mafia.  Without anyone else to provide basic services, and the military officers looking to make a buck, the mob bought tons of weapons for pennies on the dollar, then sold them around the world.  Who was buying?  Warlords and Terrorists.  Most of the Soviet Bloc countries had enough weapons to last a lifetime, and an AK-47 is great for a lot of things, but eating one is frowned upon.  Global terrorism was still a few years down the road, but the earliest groups like Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Hezbollah in the Palestine region were looking for weapons.  The Russian Mafia sold guns to whomever was willing to buy.

We also know that this blood money was dirty AF, and needed a laundromat.  Where could one launder millions of dollars at once with little oversight?   Who would be the perfect combination of desperate, egotistical, and evil enough to serve as a willing participant in this scheme for a chunk of the profits?

Enter Donald Trump.

Trump was already laundering money for La Cosa Nostra by this point, and had developed strong ties with the Russian Mafia in the late 90’s following yet another one of his bankruptcies.

At some point, OBL comes up with this attack plan.  I’m not completely sold that Russian Intelligence was behind the details and planning, but I’m not ruling it out.  Since I’m not convinced and there isn’t ample evidence, I’m leaving the known facts in place.  So, OBL plans this attack with or without RU’s help, but Russia hears about it and let some of their top level people know about it.  Trump, being the egotistical, NPD-laden prick that he is, can’t help but go on television and make crazy claims.  At some point, Felix Sater talks to the FBI and brags about stopping a terrorist attack.

Time passes, and Russia sees an opportunity to sow discord in the United States.  Using some of their favorite dezya outlets like InfoWars, they push the fringes into conspiracy theories like Bush, the Saudis, and the Jews were behind the attack, or that the U.S. Government used Special Forces to plant explosives in the buildings, or they planted thermite on the supporting columns to bring the tower down with no one noticing, or the military shot down Flight 93, or time-traveling space ninjas from the planet Xaxxon 7 saw this as the bifurcation point to change the timeline to relegate humanity to the interstellar backwaters for millennia to come.  And people eat this shit up.  These theories get posted to every crazy forum on the internet until social media comes around.  Eventually, the U.S. catches and kills OBL, and things are happy for about 20 minutes.  Then the next problem comes around, ISIS.

The Russians are behind a lot of shit, but I’ve never connected them to 9/11 before, not even tangentially.  Sure, they supply every terrorist group in the world with their gear, and it’s an amazing coincidence that most of the terrorist websites are hosted out of the RU, and that there’s never an Islamic Terrorist attack in Russia, yet all of the groups use AK-47’s made in Russia.  Or, how the same disinformation campaign being used against Americans and Europe today matches the same moves, point for point, that were unfurled twenty years ago.  Funny how that is.

I’m still hesitant to say that the Russians were involved in 9/11 because it still sounds completely off-the-wall bonkers, but at this point I wouldn’t be surprised.  Putin killed his own citizens in St. Petersburg to help rise to power, hearing he tried the same stuff in New York wouldn’t be that far of a leap.

 

 

That’s it for Tuesday.  That last section rocked me.  I spent a lot of time thinking about that last night, and trying to wargame out the following question:

What if the Cold War never ended?  What if the Russians kept fighting it?  Would things look different than they do today if the attack was stopped?  Who benefited from the War on Terror?

I think I’m going to go into more detail on these questions in a future post, but the short version is the actions of the Putin regime are the same ones used by the Soviet Union back in the day.  Spycraft, disinformation, propaganda, proxy wars, it’s all the same.

As far as who benefited from the War on Terror, think about this.  Before 9/11, the FBI’s primary mission was fighting crime, with intelligence gathering and counterterrorism as a distant second and third priority.  Following the attack, crime fighting took a back seat.  Meanwhile, corruption has run rampant and the white collar criminals get away with countless crimes.  Does Donald Trump get away with laundering Mogilevich’s money if the FBI cracked down on international crime as hard as they cracked down on terrorism?

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur