2018

Thursday, August 16, 2018.

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

The Manafort Trial

The case is now in the hands of the jury. There was a bunch of excitement as they sent a note to the judge asking four questions.

The first was about FBAR (Foreign Bank Account Reporting) guidelines, and whether or not the rule is 50% ownership or more than 50% ownership. Judge Ellis told the jury that along with the requirement for people who own more than 50 percent of a company with foreign bank accounts, a person must file FBARs if he “controls the disposition of money, funds, or other assets held in a financial account by direct communications.”

The second question the jury asked was a clarification of the term “shelf company.” The judge couldn’t help with that one.

The third question they had was they wanted the definition of reasonable doubt. Judge Ellis responded that reasonable doubt “is a doubt based on reason,” but added: “The government is not required to prove guilt beyond all possible doubt.” Think of it like this… if Paul Manafort made a convincing argument that his tax person gave him bad advice on the filing requirements, that could be a reasonable doubt. If he claimed that it wasn’t him filling out those tax forms, but his evil twin Saul, that’s not a reasonable doubt. Sure, it is possible his evil twin Saul could forged his signatures and impersonated him, but it’s not reasonable.

Finally, they asked the judge if they could have the evidence list amended with the indictment counts for each, so they could go through it and see which evidence goes to which crime. The judge said no.

This could take a while. I don’t know when they’ll reach a verdict or announce that they’re hopelessly deadlocked, but I’ll keep you informed.

It really was the Russia investigation all along.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal posted late Wednesday, President Trump once again gave away the ballgame when it comes to his efforts to affect the probe and tear down its leaders (both current and former). He confessed that his true motivation for revoking former CIA director John Brennan’s security clearance was the “rigged witch hunt” that Brennan once “led.”

“I call it the rigged witch hunt; [it] is a sham,” Trump told the Journal’s Peter Nicholas and Michael C. Bender. “And these people led it!”

He added: “So I think it’s something that had to be done.”

You could be forgiven for having flashbacks to Trump’s interview with NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt in the aftermath of his firing last year of James B. Comey as FBI director. Then, as now, the White House offered a series of motivations for the crackdown on a person who was a liability in the Russia probe. Then, as now, it seemed clear what the actual motivation was. And then, as now, Trump appeared to go out and just admit the actual motivation.

There’s this thing called Consciousness of Guilt, when a person who committed a crime commits other actions with the original crime in mind. When those actions occur and are tied to doing them with the original crime in mind, they’re the actions of a guilty person.

Once again The Dotard says what’s on his mind, and what’s on his mind is Russia. How he’s going down, how Mueller’s closing in around him, and how everything and everyone around him sees how bad the situation truly is.

Rachel Maddow brought up some great points on her show. Each and every person on the list of potential security clearance withdraws is a likely witness against Trump. They’ve seen the classified evidence against him.

However, if they don’t have a clearance, then hypothetically they wouldn’t be allowed to refer to the evidence in the case because it’s too sensitive to view. If they can’t view it, they can’t testify against Trump.

While it is something to be worried about, there are few flaws with the hypothesis.

First, this assumes that there is no publicly available evidence. One problem with classified intelligence is that it makes lousy evidence in a court because the source and chain of custody have to be exposed for it to be admissible. This is why seeing classified intelligence is very rare in a trial. Why burn an active source when publicly accessible evidence like witness testimony, emails, or phone calls and texts are available that do the same job?

Second, this also assumes that statements, interviews, and testimony before the Grand Jury have not already taken place. If so, that information is already in the hands of the courts. Removing a security clearance from someone to harm their testimony after they’ve spoken to the Grand Jury just earns Donald another count of Witness Tampering and Obstruction of Justice.

Third, this also assumes that a collusion story is the first series of charges against Trump to hit. It won’t. The first series of charges will be Obstruction-related, mostly covering the cover-up of the Russian investigation since the end of the campaign and the early part of the Trump Administration. I don’t have any inside sources on this, but if I were building a case to take down the most corrupt American in history, I’d start by removing his supporters, his base, his power, and his ability to protect himself with low-hanging fruit charges. Then, after it’s shown that he covered up some crimes, I’d go after him for the crimes he covered up.

Still, we need to keep an eye out for this. I’m hoping this is an angle that’s been wargammed by Mueller’s team as well.

Is it just me or do Trump’s action reek of desperation? Like, down by 3 touchdowns in the 4th quarter with 3 minutes left to play, throw it up and hope someone catches it desperation.

Someone might want to tell George’s wife what would happen to him if he tried to “back out” of his plea deal.

He’s already plead guilty to lying to the FBI, which carries a maximum sentence of 5 years. They will recommend that he serve all 5 years. Next, they’d charge him will ALL of the other crimes they have him for, and that he’s admitted to. Then, after charging him, they will throw the book at him by recommending that he serve the maximum sentence for each and every crime, and that he do it consecutively, not concurrently. And, they’d also recommend that he should serve that time in the worst prison in the Federal system, with the worst of the worst.

Plus, his testimony and help has already been used and followed up on for other crimes. Everyone in the campaign will know that he ratted them out. Russian mobsters and their ilk don’t like rats.

If George listens to his wife, he’ll be lucky to die in jail an old man. Otherwise, he’ll probably get shanked by the first person he runs into in the prison yard with a vaguely European last name.

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

Trump reportedly reverses Obama-era rules for US cyber operations

The Trump administration has reportedly reversed an Obama-era framework for how and when the US can use cyber attacks against foes. President Trump undid Presidential Policy Directive 20 yesterday according to the Wall Street Journal‘s sources, and with it reversed a classified framework detailing a multi-agency process that must be followed before carrying out an attack.

The directive was put in place to prevent against bungling multi-year cyber-espionage plans that may be in motion, thus having many agencies involved with the planning process of any attack.

“It wasn’t clear what rules the administration is adopting to replace the Obama directive,” WSJ writes. “A number of current US officials confirmed the directive had been replaced but declined to comment further, citing the classified nature of the progress.”

The moves to undo the directive apparently began in April when John Bolton took up the mantle of national security advisor. The previous administration’s cybersecurity coordinator Michael Daniel described the directive to the WSJ as “designed to ensure that all appropriate equities got considered when you thought about doing an offensive cyber operation.”

There’s a worry that the directive was dismantled too quickly, and as a result people are concerned because the Trump administration hasn’t outlined its replacement to those involved. Given this administration’s history of putting laws into place seemingly without considering the consequences, coupled with Trump’s contempt for the intelligence community, the lawmakers’ concerns aren’t unfounded.

Once again, a move that helps no one but America’s enemies, executed by the Russian Agent Orange.

Brennan and Security Clearances

When Alexander Bortnikov, the head of Russia’s internal security service, told me during an early August 2016 phone call that Russia wasn’t interfering in our presidential election, I knew he was lying. Over the previous several years I had grown weary of Mr. Bortnikov’s denials of Russia’s perfidy — about its mistreatment of American diplomats and citizens in Moscow, its repeated failure to adhere to cease-fire agreements in Syria and its paramilitary intervention in eastern Ukraine, to name just a few issues.

When I warned Mr. Bortnikov that Russian interference in our election was intolerable and would roil United States-Russia relations for many years, he denied Russian involvement in any election, in America or elsewhere, with a feigned sincerity that I had heard many times before. President Vladimir Putin of Russia reiterated those denials numerous times over the past two years, often to Donald Trump’s seeming approval.

Russian denials are, in a word, hogwash.

Before, during and after its now infamous meddling in our last presidential election, Russia practiced the art of shaping political events abroad through its well-honed active measures program, which employs an array of technical capabilities, information operations and old-fashioned human intelligence spycraft. Electoral politics in Western democracies presents an especially inviting target, as a variety of politicians, political parties, media outlets, think tanks and influencers are readily manipulated, wittingly and unwittingly, or even bought outright by Russian intelligence operatives. The very freedoms and liberties that liberal Western democracies cherish and that autocracies fear have been exploited by Russian intelligence services not only to collect sensitive information but also to distribute propaganda and disinformation, increasingly via the growing number of social media platforms.

Having worked closely with the F.B.I. over many years on counterintelligence investigations, I was well aware of Russia’s ability to work surreptitiously within the United States, cultivating relationships with individuals who wield actual or potential power. Like Mr. Bortnikov, these Russian operatives and agents are well trained in the art of deception. They troll political, business and cultural waters in search of gullible or unprincipled individuals who become pliant in the hands of their Russian puppet masters. Too often, those puppets are found.

In my many conversations with James Comey, the F.B.I. director, in the summer of 2016, we talked about the potential for American citizens, involved in partisan politics or not, to be pawns in Russian hands. We knew that Russian intelligence services would do all they could to achieve their objectives, which the United States intelligence community publicly assessed a few short months later were to undermine public faith in the American democratic process, harm the electability of the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, and show preference for Mr. Trump. We also publicly assessed that Mr. Putin’s intelligence services were following his orders. Director Comey and I, along with the director of the National Security Agency, Adm. Michael Rogers, pledged that our agencies would share, as appropriate, whatever information was collected, especially considering the proven ability of Russian intelligence services to suborn United States citizens.

The already challenging work of the American intelligence and law enforcement communities was made more difficult in late July 2016, however, when Mr. Trump, then a presidential candidate, publicly called upon Russia to find the missing emails of Mrs. Clinton. By issuing such a statement, Mr. Trump was not only encouraging a foreign nation to collect intelligence against a United States citizen, but also openly authorizing his followers to work with our primary global adversary against his political opponent.

Such a public clarion call certainly makes one wonder what Mr. Trump privately encouraged his advisers to do — and what they actually did — to win the election. While I had deep insight into Russian activities during the 2016 election, I now am aware — thanks to the reporting of an open and free press — of many more of the highly suspicious dalliances of some American citizens with people affiliated with the Russian intelligence services.

Mr. Trump’s claims of no collusion are, in a word, hogwash.

The only questions that remain are whether the collusion that took place constituted criminally liable conspiracy, whether obstruction of justice occurred to cover up any collusion or conspiracy, and how many members of “Trump Incorporated” attempted to defraud the government by laundering and concealing the movement of money into their pockets. A jury is about to deliberate bank and tax fraud charges against one of those people, Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman. And the campaign’s former deputy chairman, Rick Gates, has pleaded guilty to financial fraud and lying to investigators.

Mr. Trump clearly has become more desperate to protect himself and those close to him, which is why he made the politically motivated decision to revoke my security clearance in an attempt to scare into silence others who might dare to challenge him. Now more than ever, it is critically important that the special counsel, Robert Mueller, and his team of investigators be allowed to complete their work without interference — from Mr. Trump or anyone else — so that all Americans can get the answers they so rightly deserve.

Check out those tweets above. How did a pal of Putin know about these ahead of time?

The Admiral in charge of Seal Team Six is speaking up against Trump. That is nuts.

I’m waiting for the inevitable Fox News hitpiece on McRaven. Not because I want to see it, but they only have one play to run now. Kiss Trump’s ass at all costs.

Press

Military Parade

The Military Parade is “delayed.” Good, this whole parade is a stupid idea. America is the big swinging dick of the world. When you’ve got the biggest dick, you don’t need to whip it out. Only the schmuck that’s hung like a snail feels the need to brag about how big their dick is.

That’s enough dick talk. Time to class it up a bit.

THE OMAROSA TAPES

Really? I said class it up.

So there’s more than 200 tapes of conversations with pretty much everyone, and the one she posted with Lara Trump sounds like it’s either awfully close to a campaign finance violation, or a blatant bribe and hush money attempt. Probably both.

I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I’m looking forward to the next collection of WTF to come from her. I’ve questioned her morals, ethics, fashion sense, and whether or not she’s a fire-breathing dragon, but I haven’t questioned her intelligence. Don’t get me wrong, she’s evil, but she’s also smart enough, evil enough, and vengeful enough to play Trump’s game.

TRAITOR TOTS

The Wall Street Journal reported something interesting today about Michael Cohen: back in September 2016, Stormy Daniels’ lawyer contacted him about making a hush money payment to keep Stormy quiet about her affair with Trump. Cohen told him to pound sand.

But a few weeks later, the Access Hollywood “grab ’em by the pussy” tape became public and Stormy’s lawyer decided to give Cohen another call. Sure enough, suddenly he was interested in cutting a deal. This suggests that the $130,000 payment they eventually agreed on wasn’t meant, say, to keep the affair secret from Melania. After all, why would you be indifferent about that in September but suddenly care deeply about it in October? Election law expert Rick Hasen explains what this means:

The Journal reports federal prosecutors view the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape as the “trigger” for Cohen’s payments to Daniels.That’s a big deal. Two important Republican election lawyers have attempted to set a high bar for how to tell when a payment in this context might be campaign-related rather than personal.

Charlie Spies told the Journal in February that the payment to Daniels was “an expense that would exist irrespective of whether Mr. Trump was a candidate and therefore should not be treated as a campaign contribution.” And former Federal Election Commission chair Brad Smith wrote in an April op-ed in the Journal that “FEC regulations explain that the campaign cannot pay expenses that would exist ‘irrespective’ of the campaign, even if it might help win election. At the same time, obligations that would not exist ‘but for’ the campaign must be paid from campaign funds.”

In other words, this is evidence that the $130,000 payment wasn’t“irrespective” of Trump’s campaign. The campaign was in full swing in September and Cohen didn’t care, but as soon as the Access Hollywood tape increased the damage that Stormy Daniels could do, he cared a lot. If a jury agrees, this becomes a serious, full-blown campaign finance violation. And all the evidence suggests that Trump knew about it.

FIGHTING BACK

‘Baby Trump’ balloons arrive in NJ ahead of president’s visit

The Press Is Not The Enemy

Those of us who are horrified by the vilification of the news media, those of us who cringe at the sight of angry mobs jeering at the cordoned-off journalists at Trump rallies, far outnumber those who are swept up by this ugly passion. We are still in the majority. But if we are silent, if we don’t speak up, if we don’t raise our voices and say, “This is not America,” it won’t matter that we are in the majority. Silence didn’t create this country; brazen, unwavering commitment did. And one of those commitments was to a free press — one not controlled or hampered by a demagogue who has a good day only when he’s being flattered.

See the bottom of this post for my thoughts on The Press.

Security Clearances

IMMIGRATION

COLD WAR 2.0

#NEVERAGAIN

Arming teachers in America

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

Elite CEO pay jumps to average of $19 million, as fears mount over the wealthy pocketing gains

SCOTUS

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Pedophile Priests

ELECTION 2018

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

Satanic Temple Unveils Baphomet Statue at Arkansas Capitol

QUEEN OF SOUL

RUMOR MILL

That’s it for Thursday. As promised, below are my thoughts about The Press.

The Press is not the enemy of the people. It has many enemies, but the people are not one of them.

The Press is the enemy of the corrupt, the abusive, and the power-hungry.

The Press is the enemy of the status quo that accepts complacency and corruption in their lives.

The Press is the enemy of ignorance.

The Press is the enemy of bigotry, racism, misogyny, and hate.

The Press is the enemy of those that would use the above to distract the otherwise vigilant while they consolidate their power.

The Press is the enemy of the Propagandist, the one who spins a story to meet their goals.

The Press is the enemy of the Liar, who can only exist as long as they control the narrative.

The Press is the enemy of the Criminal, who depends on secrets to thrive.

The Press is the enemy of the Bully, who needs to project an image of toughness.

The Press is the enemy of the Hypocrite, who can’t have anyone know about their past.

The Press is the enemy of the Tyrant, who demands absolute loyalty from all.

In other words…

The Press is the enemy of Donald J. Trump.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 08/15/2018

Wednesday, August 15th.

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

The Manafort Trial

Both the prosecution and defense gave their final arguments on Wednesday. For the prosecution, they outlined several instances of Manafort’s knowingly breaking the law. The defense tried to make the claim that Manafort may have been less than forthright or honest, but the government had failed to make their case that what Manafort did was intentionally wrong. In other words, they tried to blow some smoke up the jury’s ass.

There are two things that people need to remember for this case.

First, this is not a case about collusion, conspiracy, treason, or anything like that. This is a white collar crime case.

Second, and this was laid out by Greg Andres, but this is actually two cases in one. This is both a tax avoidance and money laundering case and a bank fraud and wire fraud case.

These cases can be broken down into the “Salad Days” and the “IOU” days. The Salad Days are when Manafort was working for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovitch and the Party of Regions. In those days, he was making money hand over fist, and got used to living the high life. That case is about him lying about his money, hiding how much he made, burying it in offshore accounts, and avoiding taxes on it. The IOU days are after Yanukovitch left office in disgrace and Manafort was left owing a lot of money to Oleg Deripaska and the Russian Mafia. Manafort could no longer afford to live like a prince, so him and Rick Gates came up with some interesting funding methods. This included a buttload of loans and at least one pay for play scam with a Trump supporter.

The jury begins deliberation on Thursday. I have no clue how long it will take them to return a verdict. It could be hours, days, or weeks. As soon as there’s an update, I’ll post it to this site.

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

Brennan

Remember a few weeks ago when Orange Julius got all butthurt about Former CIA Director John Brennan saying bad things about him and he threatened to take away his security clearance? (Daily Check-In 07/23/2018,Daily Check-In 07/24/2018,Daily Check-In 07/25/2018) Turns out that Trump did revoke his clearance back on July 26th. Sarah Hucakbee-Sanders read a statement from Trump describing this action, how John Brennan said mean things about him, and he totally didn’t do this because of Russia.

NARRATOR (V.O.): He did it because of Russia.

I’m not going to talk about how much of a dickbag authoritarian strong man move this is. It is, but I don’t think that’s the big story here. There are two elements that deserve a deep dive.

First, the timing. This statement was dated July 26th. That was a few weeks ago. Why wait until now? Because this is Trump trying to distract from something else. Could it be the Omarosa Shit Storm? The N-Word footage about to drop like a Drake mix tape? How about the Manafort Trial? Or how about his total fuck-you to Congress with his signing state where he’s sucking Putin’s dick… again? Or, is someone close about to get indicted? This release is meant to distract from that.

Second, the delivery was interesting. Wall-eye didn’t mention it off the cuff, or say “We’re pulling the security clearance” or “The White House decided”, but she said this came directly from Trump. She then read a statement, word for word.

I found that to be very unusual for this group, and it tells me that no one in that building wants anything to do with this. No one else wants to get wrapped up in this mess. This is the bridge too far for the staff. They don’t want to be associated with this clusterfuck.

Russia and Crimea

Abramovich

Random Shit on a Wednesday

Dogs

I’m a dog person. I’ve had a few over my life, and used to volunteer at an animal shelter as a dog walker. Dogs have an uncanny way of sensing through bullshit and evil. If my dogs didn’t like you, you weren’t welcome back, because there is something seriously wrong with you if a dog doesn’t like you.

Dogs hate Donald Trump. That says all anyone needs to know about his character.

According to this site, only 3 presidents before Trump did not have pets at the White House (or Executive Residence). Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, and Chester A. Arthur. Just as many presidents had bears as pets.

TRAITOR TOTS

Documents Reveal Successful Cyberattack in California Congressional Race

Why do I have a feeling Dana Rohrabacher is involved?

WASHINGTON — FBI agents in California and Washington, D.C., have investigated a series of cyberattacks over the past year that targeted a Democratic opponent of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA). Rohrabacher is a 15-term incumbent who is widely seen as the most pro-Russia and pro-Putin member of Congress and is a staunch supporter of President Trump.

The hacking attempts and the FBI’s involvement are described in dozens of emails and forensic records obtained by Rolling Stone.

The target of these attacks, Dr. Hans Keirstead, a stem-cell scientist and the CEO of a biomedical research company, finished third in California’s nonpartisan “top-two” primary on June 5th, falling 125 votes short of advancing to the general election in one of the narrowest margins of any congressional primary this year. He has since endorsed Harley Rouda, the Democrat who finished in second place and will face Rohrabacher in the November election.

Yep. Not surprised.

Rand Paul

I asked the Senator on Twitter what this sound like in the original Russian. He hasn’t responded yet.

FIGHTING BACK

IMMIGRATION

COLD WAR 2.0

#NEVERAGAIN

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

Alex Jones

FCC

Roger Stone

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

Omarosa

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Mob

Pedophile Priests

ELECTION 2018

ENVIRONMENT

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

RUMOR MILL

That’s it for Wednesday. We’re still waiting on news about Paul Manafort. Like I said earlier, this could take hours, days, weeks…

On Thursday, newspapers and journalists around the country are speaking out against Trump’s attacks on the press. I’m joining the fight, to talk about how important what the press does is for a free society, especially from my point of view as one crazy guy trying to make sense of it all.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 08/14/2018

Tuesday, August 14th.

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

The Manafort Trial

The eleventh day of the Manafort Tax Trial was pretty short as the defense rested their case without calling any witnesses or entering any evidence into the record. While this might seem like a bad idea, this is Manafort’s best approach, and it’s relatively common in White Collar cases for the defense to do this. It is the burden of the prosecution to prove that Paul Manafort committed these crimes, not the Manafort’s burden to prove that he didn’t. All his defense has to do is provide a reasonable doubt to the jury. The jury cannot use the fact that Manafort did not take the stand against him. If Manafort introduced any witnesses or evidence of their own, the prosecution gets the chance to go after them or that as well. Besides, this is a tax avoidance crime. It’s not like it’s a murder case and his friend provides an alibi that he was busy ballroom dancing instead of filling out tax forms or stabbing his mailman.

There were some arguments about how emails would be entered into evidence. Emails, like the one linked to above where Paul Manafort mailed Jared Kushner a copy of Steve Calk’s resume and a recommendation letter that was dated two weeks after the loans from Federal Savings Bank cleared.

The trial will resume Wednesday morning with closing arguments. Following the jury instructions from the judge, the jury will be sequestered until they reach a verdict. The prosecution would like the jury to stick around afterward in the case of a guilty verdict to discuss asset forfeiture.

Before I get to this next section, I want to make a disclaimer. I hoped that this whole Omarosa tape crap would stay in the realm of distraction, and for the most part it has. But, like everything else in this shitshow, it’s connected to the Russian Investigation in some part or another. Omarosa is no exception.

During Omarosa’s interview with Katy Tur on MSNBC, she let a little something slip; Trump knew about the Wikileaks email release before it was public knowledge.

I’m sorry, what the fuck was that? Did she just… Did she…

DID SHE JUST SAY THE ORANGE DAUGHTER FUCKER KNEW!!!!???!?!?!?

Holy dogshit, people. That should be the game-changer right there. But, before I start popping the popcorn and open that bottle of “Buttery Males” wine (seriously, someone should make that), let’s qualify this a little bit.

First, Omarosa’s track record is… well, it’s shit. I’ve seen salesman at tiny buy-here-pay-here used car lots with more integrity than her. She’s one of the more “dependable” people in Trump World, but that’s like being the tallest midget on the basketball team.

Second, she doesn’t mention which Wikileaks mail drop. According to the following list from Wikipedia, there were a few releases in 2016. The two most important to the Trump Team were the July 22nd DNC emails and the October 7th Podesta emails. (Daily Check-In 07/13/2018 , Daily Check-In 10/6/2017) Omarosa joined the campaign at its onset, so it could be either of these.

Third, there’s a difference between knowledge and coordination. Let’s assume for a moment that Trump was told about the release right before it happened, and that he had no control over it, and maybe Omarosa was in the room when the call came in. I don’t buy this for a second, but this will eventually become the talking point Team Trump uses when their back is against the wall. They’ll try to spin it that she was talking about a courtesy call that Trump received, and that there was no coordination. Of course, that assumes that Donnie Jr. never told Daddy about his DM’s with Wikileaks. (Daily Check-In 11/13/2017)

After all of that, the defense against her will be that she’s a liar, unreliable, or blowing things out of proportion, or just mad that she was fired. How can she battle against this?

Does anyone forget that she recorded EVERYTHING that happened? She did it during her time in the White House, and said she did it because “in Trump World, everyone lies.” Anyone want to bet that she started this habit BEFORE working at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? I’ll put $20 down on that. She wouldn’t be the first person to record conversations with Donald Trump (Daily Check-In 07/20/2018).

As far as her motivations go, I put them somewhere between greed and revenge, with just a sprinkling of conscience and patriotism. She could have taken the hush money and stayed quiet, but I think at some point in the last couple years, she had her moment of clarity and realized what was going on. Sure, she stuck around out of some sense of loyalty to Trump, but when he turned on her, or didn’t fight for her hard enough, or saw their efforts to screw her over, she decided to fight back.

Is she the long-rumored mole in the campaign? Doubt it, but at this point nothing should surprise me.

By the way, she says she’s been interviewed by Special Counselor Robert Mueller. And an NDA cannot be used to suppress criminal activities.

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

Let me get this straight…

Cadet Bone Spurs, who signed a tax bill that adds over a trillion dollars to the deficit, who has demanded a dictator-style parade while saying we have to cut funds from the VA, who is bending over to appease Russia and North Korea, and who is making a mockery of the military with this Space Force bullshit, asked if any of the soldiers in the Army’s busiest division would donate their pay raise to pay off his debts, and when none of them raised their hands, he attacks them?

JFC. In any normal universe, this alone would be enough to sink him for good.

TRAITOR TOTS

FIGHTING BACK

IMMIGRATION

COLD WAR 2.0

#NEVERAGAIN

FIXING THE INTERNET

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

That makes sense for three reasons.

First, the economy is the only thing that’s sort of going right under Trump. Of course, he’s tried to kill it with every action he takes, and it usually takes 2-5 years to finally see the damage caused by their actions.

Second, for the well-to-do Fox News viewer, this reinforces their view that everything is going great and that Cheeto Mussolini is great.

Finally, for the poor Fox News viewers, this helps anger them more. Combine good news of Trump’s “accomplishments” with how bad anyone is with skin darker than a latte, then talk about how good the economy is doing, and they’ll put the pieces together and think that they’d have it good to if it wasn’t for all of the minorities.

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

Omarosa and the Tapes

As much as I’d like to say “the tapes would end his presidency once and for all”, I know that there are enough people in his base that would cheer him on.

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

The West Virginian Supreme Court has been rife with corruption for a long time, so it’s not the “End of Democracy” circle jerk that Reddit commenters who can’t be bothered to read the article make it to be.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday released a sweeping grand jury report on sex abuse in the Catholic Church, listing hundreds of accused clergy and detailing 70 years of misconduct and church response across the state.

The release is the culmination of an 18-month probe, led by state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, on six of the state’s eight dioceses — Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Scranton, Erie and Greensburg — and follows other state grand jury reports that revealed abuse and coverups in two other dioceses.

Some details and names that might reveal the 300 clergy listed have been redacted from the report. Legal challenges by clergy delayed the report’s release, after some said it is a violation of their constitutional rights. Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court ruled last month that the report must be released but with some redaction.

In the 12 hours following the release of this report, I’ve seen several posts on social media from friends detailing their run-ins, interactions, and abuse at the hands of priests mentioned in this report. Some of them were benign, like one person saying “I wondered why Father XXXXXX was transferred away so quickly from the parish.” Others weren’t so, like one tale of attempted abuse by a priest on a then 11-year-old boy who made an excuse to get away as fast as he could. He put two and two together after reading that priest’s name in the report. He’s a grown man with a family now, and will live with those memories for the rest of his life.

To be fair, this is the first “purposeful” death by fentanyl. According to this story and the first chart, more than 20,000 people died of a fentanyl overdose in 2016.

Trumped-up justice: New report shows corporate crime going unpunished under Trump

ELECTION 2018

I’m noticing a pattern, and I’m not the only one that’s noticed it.

The Republicans have a primary election between a normal, run of the mill Neoconservative and a Trumpist. One espouses whatever Ayn Rand-ian bullshit they claim to believe in, while the other goes full MAGA. The Trumpist wins the primary. Meanwhile, in the same district, the Democrats are running Moderate and Centrist candidates who don’t own red hats nor kale farms. Those two face off in the General Election, and the Democrat outperforms what they’ve done historically. Sometimes, like in Alabama’s Senate race, or the PA Congress special election, the Democrat wins.

We saw it again on Tuesday with Kansas and Minnesota. In both states’ Governor election, the GOP “Base” went full MAGA. Never go full MAGA. Minnesota is usually a toss-up state, but Kansas has been the definition of a Red-State since the color choices were settled back in the 80’s.

The GOP Primaries across the nation are looking more and more like Pyrrhic Victories. Sure, MAGA wins the primary, but now they have to bet that the average voter will put Party of Country like they did.

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

RUMOR MILL

That’s it for Tuesday. The Manafort Tax trial wraps up on Wednesday. I’m not sure how long that will be with the jury. We’ll probably get more stuff about Omarosa, and who knows what other craziness.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 08/13/2018

Monday, August 13th

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

The Manafort Trial

The tenth day of the Manafort Tax Trial began in the early afternoon with the prosecution calling their last new witness James Brennan. Brennan, a Vice President at Federal Savings Bank, testified under immunity on Monday. He said that Manafort did not qualify for the loans after it was discovered that he hid two mortgages that he didn’t disclose, but he authorized the loans anyway after the bank CEO Steve Calk intervened on Manafort’s behalf.

The defense showed some of their strategy when they said that Paul Manafort had no requirement to claim the bank accounts of his business DMP LLC because he didn’t own more than 50% of the company. Paul owns 50% and his wife Kathleen owns the other 50%. They file jointly. This argument has more holes in it than a colander. If a husband and wife file jointly, it’s because they share responsibility over their finances. If one screws something up, the other is also at fault. Filing jointly is the same legally as two people claiming to be one entity. That one entity has ownership over any controlled company, and the partners or married couple have shared responsibility. If anything, the defense just implicated Mrs. Manafort in some tax evasion, too.

The prosecution recalled Paula Liss from FinCEN back for a few questions about Manafort’s company. The prosecution never asked about the company, but the defense brought up that the offshore bank accounts could have claimed under Manafort’s company instead of on his personal tax form. Paula testified that the bank accounts were not claimed by the company, either.

At this point, the prosecution rested its case. The defense said they will file a motion to dismiss the charges, and the judge said he would review it. I am not a lawyer, but this sounds like it is pretty standard for a criminal trial. If the prosecution has failed to make a case, or made grievous errors, the case can be dismissed before the defense makes their case. That does not seem likely in this situation.

Peter Strzok, the FBI agent who was the nations top spy hunter and who was dragged through the coals by Congress (Daily Check-In 07/12/2018) for texting his mistress/girlfriend was fired. This whole thing stinks to high heaven.

The FBI’s HR office decided that his actions of sending personal texts from a secured phone warranted a demotion and a 60-day suspension, which he had already served, but that was overruled and he was fired by Deputy Director Bowdich.

Strzok has been a punching bag of the Right Wing Media ever since the whole text thing came out. Their claims of “Deep State” have raged for about a year while doing nothing but serve as a distraction for the piles of shit coming out about Trump and his team.

He was also one of the last two people at the FBI that James Comey told about his meetings with Donald Trump in real time. The only other person left at this point is the aforementioned Bowdich.

I’m not sure what to think on this. Something is rotten about this action, and it’s almost absolutely politically motivated. Hell, Trump couldn’t even wait a whole day before tweeting about the firing, which makes this look even more like it was politically motivated.

I have two questions.

First, was this firing carried out reluctantly or willingly?

Second, is there a paper trail?

I should make a post about all of the fake deadlines, deals, and comments that Rudy’s made since he joined as Trump’s lawyer.

Notice how he pulled this as a deadline with a shade over 2 weeks left in August, when most of Washington is on vacation and there is no plan for anyone to be around. It’s like going on vacation, but telling your coworker that you can’t do a certain task after you get back because it will be too late, but you can’t do it while on vacation, then blaming the coworker for it not getting done.

Funny how each and every judge that hears these challenges seems to rule in favor of the Special Counselor. It’s almost like they have some of the world’s best attorneys on their side, making sure that every i is dotted and t is crossed.

Oh wait, they do. The Justice League.

Mueller Is Examining Roger Stone’s Emails

A lawyer for Randy Credico, the radio host, confirmed Friday that he received a subpoena from Mueller’s office requesting that Credico testify before a grand jury in Washington on September 7. The attorney, Martin Stolar, said he believes prosecutors want to ask Credico about his contacts with Stone and also potentially about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Assange called into Credico’s radio show in 2016, and Stone has claimed Credico gave him information from Assange about plans to release hacked emails related to Hillary Clinton.

According to two people familiar with the matter, investigators also want to question Credico about a series of emails Stone sent him earlier this year, after Credico publicly disputed Stone’s claims about their interactions. “They said they saw some emails,” one of the people said, adding that the investigators are interested in the extent to which Credico perceived Stone’s statements as threats.

Of course they’re looking at Stone’s emails. They’ve had them for months. They want to know what Credico has to say about them.

In March 2016, as the U.S. foreign policy establishment shunned presidential candidate Donald Trump, his son-in-law Jared Kushner was invited to lunch for a think tank urging detente with Russia and struggling for influence in Washington.

The meeting at Manhattan’s Time Warner Center, which hasn’t been reported before, would prove significant for the Center for the National Interest and Kushner, who was still a little-known figure in the Trump campaign.

The main attraction of the March 14th event was Henry Kissinger, the center’s honorary chairman, who gave a talk that included analyzing U.S.-Russia relations for a small group of attendees. Kushner, who remained quiet and unobtrusive during the lunch, introduced himself to Kissinger afterward. He also met Dimitri Simes, the Russian-born president of the center and publisher of its magazine, The National Interest.

Questions have recently been raised about the center for its ties to Russia, including its interactions with Maria Butina, a woman accused of conspiring to set up a back channel by infiltrating the National Rifle Organization and the National Prayer Breakfast.

Trump Being Questioned by Butina: Video

Kushner meeting Simes at the lunch turned out to be a solid match. In the weeks following they discussed the possibility of an event hosted by the center to give Trump a chance to lay out a cohesive foreign policy speech. Simes’s organization, more pro-Russian than most in Washington, had invited other presidential candidates but none accepted. And Republican foreign policy analysts feared associating with Trump could end their careers. The center had the imprimatur of Kissinger, however, because it had been established by Richard Nixon who named him national security adviser.

A partnership with the center would help catapult Kushner to his role as a key diplomat in the White House. He and Simes organized Trump’s “America First” speech at the Mayflower Hotel the next month, with writing input and a guest list from the center.

It was at the Mayflower that Kushner first met Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, an encounter he left off disclosure forms when he initially joined the government. After Trump was elected, but before he took office, Kushner asked Kislyak whether the transition team could use the Russian embassy to communicate privately with Moscow.

March 2016, Kushner meets with Simes. In April, everyone meets with Sergey Kislyak at the Mayflower Hotel, where the Trump team allegedly asked the Russians for assistance in their campaign. (Scandal Speed Run, 2017 Retrospective). This sounds like a back channel being formed.

Feds Add Weapons Trafficking and Sanctions Expert to the Team Prosecuting Maria Butina

The Department of Justice has added an attorney with expertise in weapons export and sanctions laws to the team prosecuting Maria Butina, the accused Russian agent whose handler was entwined with Kremlin-connected arms manufacturers banned from doing business in the United States.

The addition of Will Mackie brings to three the number of prosecutors pursuing the case against Butina. She faces charges of conspiracy and acting as an unregistered foreign agent for what authorities say was her attempt to gain political influence through the National Rifle Association, part of a broader Russian campaign to install Donald Trump in the White House.

Mackie, an assistant U.S. attorney in the Justice Department’s National Security Division, has spent years prosecuting violations of U.S. sanctions and international arms embargoes. In 2008, he helped win a guilty verdict in the high-profile case against John Reece Roth, a University of Tennessee professor who passed secret military data to research assistants from China and Iran. More recently, Mackie was involved in the controversial prosecution of Marc Turi, an Arizona arms dealer who sought to sell sniper rifles, machine guns, and other weapons to Libyan rebels during the uprising against Muammar el-Qaddafi. (The charges against Turi were dropped after he reached a civil settlement with the State Department).

Weapons trafficking and sanctions. Considering that Butina’s patron Alexander Torshin is under sanctions, and we’re looking at the NRA, this sounds like it’s right up his alley.

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

TRAITOR TOTS

FIGHTING BACK

Why ‘Never Trump’ Godfather Rick Wilson Started Carrying a Gun in Public

Death threats. Lots and lots of death threats.

What’s sad isn’t how far he’s taking these people, but how far they’re willing to go with just a little bit of encouragement.

Reminds me a bit of Ronald Reagan Jr. He’s pretty much the polar opposite of his dad.

IMMIGRATION

Trump and my nephew both know their immigrant and refugee roots. Yet, they repeat the insults and false accusations of earlier generations against these refugees to make them seem less than human. — Almost every American family has an immigration story of its own based on flight from war, poverty, famine, persecution, fear or hopelessness. These immigrants became the workers, entrepreneurs, scientists and soldiers of America.

COLD WAR 2.0

Hacked E-Mails Take Us Inside the Billionaires’ Club Around Vladimir Putin

Pavlov has engaged some of the world’s biggest law firms to act on behalf of him and his clients, has encouraged a former U.K. attorney general to lobby on his behalf, and has hired the consultancy firm part-owned by U.K. and Australian election maestro Lynton Crosby.

Yet he’s also embroiled in a huge international row over an alleged $230 million Russian fraud that left a lawyer tortured to death in a Russian prison; is closely tied to the Russian and Kazakh interior ministries; and is even alleged to have acted as a mediator between a Russian whistleblower and an alleged criminal gang, shortly before the whistleblower was found dead—with U.S. intelligence pointing blame for the death directly at Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Pavlov’s jetset lifestyle embodies the elaborate network of connections between the Russian state and Western elites that special counsel Robert Mueller is now charged with investigating. Like most people in this world, Pavlov has always been a closed book—until now.

The Daily Beast is able to shed unprecedented light on how Pavlov and those around him operate, thanks to a circumstance all too familiar to Hillary Clinton aide John Podesta, the Democratic National Committee, and others: The contents of Pavlov’s emails were leaked and posted online following what he says was a hacking attack to an obscure site used by hackers to dump their finds. (The identity of Pavlov’s hackers is not known, and Pavlov has not publicly speculated on it.)

This rare cache of documents, plus court records from cases across the U.S. and detailed reporting, give a rare insight into the complex nexus of connections in which Pavlov resides—a network that draws in interests connected to Putin and also business connections of President Trump.

Pavlov’s mails link him to everyone involved in the Magnitsky case, and link them to each other. In any normal universe, this should be the top story.

#NEVERAGAIN

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

FIXING THE INTERNET

SCOTUS

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

Omarosa

There is no way that Omarosa was the only person in the Reality Show White House that was walking around recording everything. Granted, that should be a very short list, but I’m not buying that she was the only one doing it.

As much as this should be a simple distraction, she likely has some serious dirt to work with. It’s not like these are the best of the best she’s working with. She worked there.

Trump is likely having a panic attack about what she has, what she’s released, and could still released. Of course, this idiot only knows one move, and that’s attack. Neither of these parties are thinking logically or strategically.

The newest talk is about Trump’s N-word tape. You know, the ones that Tom Arnold has been chasing down for a while. Supposedly, Omarosa has a recording of the Trump staff talking about that tape, and what that could mean.

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

ELECTION 2018

RUMOR MILL

That’s it for Monday. If this is Monday, then the rest of week will probably be nuts. I’d say I would like a nice, quiet, slow day, but that is a lie. At this point, I’m so used to the pace of the craziness that having a slow day would be jarring. It’s like taking a day off from a workout routine. It just feels… weird.

The Manafort Tax Trial should be wrapping up soon. The defense will make their case on Tuesday, followed by both sides making their closing arguments. The case would then go to the jury. Most of the charges against him are paperwork charges, like not checking boxes or lying on forms. Those are pretty open and shut charges. I’m not on the jury, but the likelihood that the jury acquits him unanimously on all 18 charges is pretty damn low.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.” ‘

– Katy Tur