Tag: Politics

Daily Check-In 08/10/2018

Friday, August 10th and the weekend

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

The Manafort Trial

Day 9 of the Manafort Tax Trial started off a little weird.  The first few hours were spent with the lawyers and judge in meetings, and the judge giving a couple warnings to the jury.

The testimony didn’t start until 2:25 PM with Dennis Raico (Daily Check-In 07/23/2018) of Federal Savings Bank taking the stand.  Raico, a Senior Vice President at the bank, testified that Manafort received $16 million in two separate loans that the bank was originally going to reject because Manafort kept screwing around with the paperwork and changing the terms of the loan.  The loans were approved when the CEO of the bank, Steve Calk, personally intervened on Manafort’s behalf.  Raico testified under immunity protection.

Raico also testified that Manafort disputed a $200,000 charge on his AmEx card by saying that Rick Gates purchased Yankees season tickets with the card.  This was further disputed by the next witness, Irfan Kirimca, Senior Director for the New York Yankees.  Irfan testified that Manafort was a season ticket holder from 2010 to 2017.  Manafort purchased $226,800 worth of tickets for 2017.  $700 per seat for 81 home games for 4 people.  If $700 per ticket sounds crazy, they are.  That is front row seats, right along the dugout.  Any closer and you’d have to wear pinstripes.

The final witness of the day was Andrew Chojnowski, lending officer at FSB.  He testified that Paul Manafort signed the loan documents attesting that he had disclosed all of his debts.

The prosecution will call it’s final witness on Monday.  James Brennan  (Daily Check-In 07/23/2018) is an employee of FSB and will be testifying under immunity protection.

 

Peter Smith

The FBI, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office and Senate Intelligence Committee investigators are all scrutinizing the cash transactions of GOP activist Peter W. Smith, who sought Hillary Clinton’s emails from hackers. BuzzFeed News reports that Smith transferred $9,500 from a bank account dedicated to his email-finding efforts to his personal account, then took about $6,100 in cash out in three separate withdrawals. Both the FBI and Senate Intel are now trying to find out if “Smith paid anyone connected with the Russian government,” and Mueller’s office has reportedly “interviewed people who Smith tried to recruit” for his operation. The FBI has reportedly gathered information about how Russian hackers were discussing passing the Clinton emails to Gen. Michael Flynn “through a cutout.” Mueller’s team is also allegedly pursuing the Flynn angle, with their office trying to determine if “Flynn assisted Smith” in his effort to obtain Clinton’s emails during the 2016 campaign. Smith, who told the Wall Street Journal last year that he never intended to pay any of the hackers who gave him what they said were sample emails, committed suicide ten days after the paper’s story was published.

This story just gets crazier and crazier.  Peter Smith (Daily Check-In 10/17/2017,Daily Check-in 10/25/2017) withdrew large amounts of cash while on the hunt for HRC’s emails.

Here’s a question.  Why would the Russian hackers, who we know by now were GRU, want paid for the work they did when they’re already doing it for Russian Intelligence and the Trump Campaign?

Because it would give them financial Kompromat over other people.  Think how useful it could be to hold leverage over some wealthy mark like Peter Smith.

 

Rudy

There is no rule saying that an investigation has to wrap up before September to keep from interfering in the election.  Just ask Hilary about Comey’s October Surprise.  Hell, ask Rudy, he knew about it before anyone else did.

 

Roger Stone

Friends of Roger

Andrew Miller is under Civil Contempt of Court.  It hasn’t reached a criminal complaint, but I’m pretty sure we’re in Bench Warrant territory.  Miller, currently working as a house painter in St. Louis, just fought an extensive legal battle challenging the legality of the Mueller Investigation.

What the fuck is a house painter doing with high-rolling attorneys?

 

An investment company based in Las Vegas, with oil and gas interests in the Middle East claimed that they received a commitment of more than three hundred million dollars from Carter Page’s Global Energy Capital after Page’s involvement in the Trump campaign.

The investment company, RD Heritage Group, claimed on their website that they they secured a capital commitment of hundreds of millions of dollars from Page and his company:

“$350MM capital commitment by Global Energy Capital … an investment management and advisory firm focused on the energy sector primarily in emerging markets. Global Energy Capital was founded by Carter Page, CFA. Carter has spent 7 years as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch in London, Moscow and New York…Carter was also a foreign policy advisor to Presidential candidate Donald Trump.”

It is unclear if Page ever actually followed through with his commitment. The exact timing of the alleged partnership between RD Heritage and Global Energy Capital is unknown, though it happened after Carter Page’s involvement with the Trump campaign.

Take this with a grain of salt, but there could be something here that links the Sheldon Cooper of Treason to the Rosneft sale brokerage.  Also would explain how he’s able to travel the world with no discernible income stream.

 

Mobbed Up

When Manafort’s turncoat lieutenant Rick Gates took the stand to detail their alleged conspiracies, I was transported to the day back in 1992 when Gotti’s underboss Sammy Gravano began singing at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn. Gotti’s lawyers attacked Sammy the Bull by demanding to know how many people he’d whacked. Manafort’s team asked Gates how many affairs he’s had.

If it seems harsh to compare Manafort to a mobster, take it up with President Trump, who got the ball rolling with a tweet before the trial began. “Looking back at history, who was treated worse, [Al] Capone, legendary mob boss . . . or Paul Manafort?” Trump mused.

And the president ought to know: He has spent plenty of time in mobbed-up milieus. As many journalists have documented — the late Wayne Barrettand decorated investigator David Cay Johnston most deeply — Trump’s trail was blazed through one business after another notorious for corruption by organized crime.

New York construction, for starters. In 1988, Vincent “the Fish” Cafaro of the Genovese crime family testified before a U.S. Senate committee concerning the Mafia’s control of building projects in New York. Construction unions and concrete contractors were deeply dirty, Cafaro confirmed, and four of the city’s five crime families worked cooperatively to keep it that way.

This would not have been news to Trump, whose early political mentor and personal lawyer was Roy Cohn, consigliere to such dons as Fat Tony Salerno and Carmine Galante. After Cohn guided the brash young developer through the gutters of city politics to win permits for Trump Plaza and Trump Tower, it happened that Trump elected to build primarily with concrete rather than steel. He bought the mud at inflated prices from S&A; Concrete, co-owned by Cohn’s client Salerno and Paul Castellano, boss of the Gambino family.

Coincidence? Fuhgeddaboudit.

Trump moved next into the New Jersey casino business, which was every bit as clean as it sounds. State officials merely shrugged when Trump bought a piece of land from associates of Philadelphia mob boss “Little Nicky” Scarfo for roughly $500,000 more than it was worth. However, this and other ties persuaded police in Australia to block Trump’s bidto build a casino in Sydney in 1987, citing Trump’s “Mafia connections.”

His gambling interests led him into the world of boxing promotion, where Trump became chums with fight impresario Don King, a former Cleveland numbers runner. (Trump once told me that he owes his remarkable coiffure to King, who advised the future president, from personal experience, that outlandish hair is great PR.) King hasn’t been convicted since the 1960s, when he did time for stomping a man to death. But investigators at the FBI and U.S. Senate concluded that his Mafia ties ran from Cleveland to New York, Las Vegas to Atlantic City. Mobsters “were looking to launder illicit cash,” wrote one sleuth. “Boxing, of all the sports, was perhaps the most accommodating laundromat, what with its international subculture of unsavory characters who play by their own rules.”

But an even more accommodating laundromat came along: luxury real estate — yet another mob-adjacent field in which the Trump name has loomed large. Because buyers of high-end properties often hide their identities, it’s impossible to say how many Russian Mafia oligarchs own Trump-branded condos. Donald Trump Jr. gave a hint in 2008: “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets.”

For instance: In 2013, federal prosecutors indicted Russian mob boss Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov and 33 others on charges related to a gambling ring operating from two Trump Tower condos that allegedly laundered more than $100 million. A few months later, the same Mr. Tokhtakhounov, a fugitive from U.S. justice, was seen on the red carpet at Trump’s Miss Universe pageant in Moscow.

Obviously, not everyone in these industries is corrupt, and if Donald Trump spent four decades rubbing elbows with wiseguys and never got dirty, he has nothing to worry about from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. But does he look unworried to you?

Sorry for the wall of text, but I’ve been waiting for the MSM to pick up on Trump’s mob ties for a long time.  Trump’s family has been involved with the mob since before he was a gleam in a bottle of bourbon.  If it’s not that obvious by this point, here’s a nice, easy equation:

Trump = Mob.

As I said before many times, such as in Money Laundering, Trump is the laundromat for various mob groups, allowing them to spend their money wherever they please.  His deals, many of which “fail”, are the perfect vehicle for moving large sums of money.

And get the romantic, Mario Puzo-inspired schlock or Scorsese-directed films out of your head involving gentlemen Italians looking out for the little guy in the neighborhood or the Wiseguys playing footsie with the cops.  These people are criminals that make truckloads of money off of human suffering.  Gambling, drug dealing, prostitution, sex trafficking, murder, extortion, blackmail, slavery, ripping tags off of mattresses, they have their hands in it all.  If it helps, know that the Russians are in charge now, and no one has made any movies turning the Russian Mafia into folk heroes.

 

COHEN

A court-appointed special master who since April has been poring over a trove of documents and electronic files seized this spring from Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s former fixer and personal lawyer, said on Thursday that she had finished her review.

In her sixth and final report to the Manhattan federal judge who is overseeing Mr. Cohen’s case, the special master, Barbara S. Jones, echoed what she said in her previous reports: Only a tiny fraction of the nearly four million files federal agents seized when they raided Mr. Cohen’s office, apartment and hotel room were protected by attorney-client privilege.

That means prosecutors can use the vast majority of the files in their wide-ranging inquiry into Mr. Cohen’s business dealings, including hush-money payments he helped arrange for women who say they had affairs with Mr. Trump.

The end of the laborious review marked a milestone in the investigation and brings the prosecutors from the public corruption unit of the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan one step closer to deciding whether to file charges against Mr. Cohen or, perhaps, to seek his cooperation in other inquiries, including one being led by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, into potential ties between Russia and Mr. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Out of the millions of pieces of evidence the FBI seized from the raid on Cohen’s everything (Daily Check-In 04/09/2018), only a tiny portion was deemed by the Special Master to be protected by Attorney-Client privilege.  Out of that, some of it has already been leaked to the press (McDougal Tape, Daily Check-In 07/20/2018).

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

Imagine that U.S. military leaders spent most of 1941 warning President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his Democratic Party of a coming Pearl Harbor attack. Then imagine history’s harsh judgment against FDR’s party had it ignored those concerns, voted against efforts to fortify the Pacific fleet and plotted the firing of generals who were working to expose the looming Japanese threat. Historians would have rightly savaged these politicians as traitors to their country.

Seventy-seven years later, President Trump and his Republican Party are showing a disturbing ambivalence toward Russia’s attacks on U.S. democracy. What exactly are we to make of their disturbing behavior? Even after Trump’s intelligence chiefs handed Republicans incontrovertible evidence of Russian malevolence, Trump dismissed the warnings as a hoax, the GOP House Intelligence Committee chairman secretly plotted against those leading the Russia investigation and Senate Republicans voted in lock step against a Democratic bill providing a stronger defense against future Russian attacks.

…

So now is the time to ask again why Trump lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani is demanding a speedy end to the damning Russia investigation, when the Whitewater probe of the Clintons lasted much longer. And why did Vice President Pence spend months denying the Trump team’s contacts with Russian officials, only to pivot this past year to calling for a quick end to the investigation?

Will Pence’s future presidential primary challengers remember that Americans would have never uncovered the scope and scale of Putin’s plot against Western democracies if Pence had had his way? Do House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes’s constituents in California understand that their representative is trying to use his chairmanship to destroy the careers of officials overseeing the Russia investigation? Let us hope the answer is yes.

One thing is certain: Republicans can no longer plead ignorance when it comes to Putin. Our country’s national security community has sounded the alarm. Congress has been warned that our democracy is under attack by the Russians. How GOP leaders respond to this threat will determine not only the legacy of their political party but also the resilience of a political system they have carelessly ceded to a buffoon. Unless Republican leaders begin putting country ahead of party, history’s judgment against them all will be harsh.

We’ve long since passed the moment when the Republican Party should have abandoned Trump en masse.  Right now, an entire political party is defending one man at the cost of the country.  One man who knows no loyalty to others, who will do anything to save his own skin, and who openly attacks anyone and anything he sees as a threat.

There are four groups of Republicans that are supporting Trump.  The believers, the cowards, the enablers, and the complicit.  History will not be kind when details of the deals they made with the Russians come out.  (Scandal Speed Run)

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

SCOTUS

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

Omarosa

In early 2017, Manigault Newman says she walked Michael Cohen, then Trump’s personal lawyer, into the Oval Office for a meeting with Trump — and saw the president chewing up a piece of paper while Cohen was leaving the office. Another White House official confirmed that Manigault Newman brought Cohen into the White House and was later rebuked for it. The two remain in contact, according to people familiar with the relationship.

“I saw him put a note in his mouth. Since Trump was ever the germophobe, I was shocked he appeared to be chewing and swallowing the paper. It must have been something very, very sensitive,” she writes in her book.

I’d like to say this is the most shocking thing I’ve read this weekend, but it’s not even in the Top 5.  I’ve seen two reasons for the paper eating and tearing.

First is that Trump is deteriorating mentally and that this is a sign of dementia.

Second is that he’s mob, and ate a note to keep it from being seen by anyone else.

I say “Why not both?”

I mean, it’s not like anything else coming from the White House is shocking, right?

She recorded everything, including stuff from the Situation Room?  HAHAHAHAHAHAHA HOW IN THE CRYSTAL PEPSI FLAVORED FUCK DID THEY NOT SEE THIS COMING!!???!?!

Ok, ok, ok.  Maybe it was some clubhouse and they told her it was the Situation Room so that she wouldn’t go in there.

No, it was the actual goddamned SITROOM?  Fuck.

Remember that scene from Casino, where where the Feds bugged a deli and the owner talked about everything that happened, right in the open?  This is a whole hell of a lot worse.

How much worse? Let’s assume for a moment that this was her personal phone, and not an NSA or USSS approved device.  If any bad actors had that number, it wouldn’t take too much to hack it and get ALL of the recordings off of it.  Every meeting, comment, side conversation, everything.

I’ve got $20 that says she uses an iPhone, backed it up to her iCloud account, and the password is something like Donny4Ever!.  I hope I’m wrong.

The above is the actual NDA they sent her for her “work” on the Trump Campaign for President in 2020.  I’m not a lawyer, but after giving it a brief look, here’s a couple things that stick out as likely illegal and/or unenforceable.

Section 1, Paragraph e: Person cannot hand over information, documents, or assist with an investigation or legal request for documents without first informing the Trump Campaign, and only cooperate to the extent that Trump’s lawyers say you should.

Section 2: No disparagement of Team Trump, ever, in any way, shape, or form.  And it would outlast the life of the contract.

Section 6, Paragraph a: Any and all financial information is confidential.  All of it, even though as a public servant, it should all be public anyway.

Section 10: The terms will survive the end of the contract with no end date.

The rest of this is pretty onerous, even for an NDA.  In exchange for keeping her mouth shut for the rest of time, the Trump Campaign would pay Omarosa $15,000 a month each month until the end of 2018 to work as an Independent Contractor on the campaign.  Less than $180,000, and she still has to pay her own health care.  To stay quiet forever.

Fuck that shit.

My guess is that Omarosa saw what and how much they were offering, weighed that with all of the shit that she put up with, saw that there was a good chance that if she joined up with the campaign that she’d spend more in legal fees than she’d make, then decided to say “fuck that shit”, then decided to write a book.  She’ll likely make more money from the book than she would have from this agreement.  Plus, she knows she has negative credibility.  Each and every claim she makes has to be backed up with evidence.  If she said that Jared once ate food, she would need to prove it.  If she’s got the receipts, which it sounds like she does, we could be in for an ugly fight between the White House and Trump’s Black Friend.

 

THAT’S RACIST

 

Unite The Right

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

CALIFORNIA

 

ELECTION 2018

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

RUMOR MILL: DEATH IN TRUMP TOWER EDITION

 

That’s it for the last few days.  The Manafort Tax Trial continues Monday, and there’s bound to be some fallout from Trump’s Black Friend.  Also, it’s Monday, which means Sacha Baron Cohen will be up to some crazy shit, “tricking” GOP members into some crazy stuff.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 08/09/2018

Thursday, August 9th

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

The Manafort Trial

The trial started with the Judge apologizing for making a mistake earlier in the week by yelling at prosecutors for letting an expert witness watch the trial.  Jude Ellis allowed it, then said he didn’t.  He admitted his mistake Thursday morning.

The first witness was Melinda James, a loan officer from Citizens Bank.  She testified that Manafort lied about his SoHo apartment to obtain a loan for it.  He claimed that this rental property was a second home, since the bank would allow him to borrow more on a second home than on a rental.  She also testified that he lied about a loan he had on another property in Brooklyn.

The next witness was Darin Evenson, an executive from Airbnb.  He testified that the SoHo apartment that Manafort claimed as a second home was listed on the rental site for 1,125 nights, the maximum allowed on the site.  He also said that the listing was removed twice.  The second time was during the loan application process for the aforementioned loan.

Next was Peggy Miceli, a VP at Citizens Bank.  She explained that the loan amounts available are lower for rental properties as opposed to second homes, and they have higher interest rates as well.  This could have motivated Manafort to claim that the SoHo apartment was a second home and not a rental.  A second home loan also allowed Manafort to take that money directly from his bank account, which is not allowed for rental properties.

Following her was Taryn Rodriguez, an Assistant Loan Officer at Citizens Bank.  She testified that he applied for a $5.5 million loan on a property on Union Street in Brooklyn just 30 to 45 days after the SoHo loan was approved.  Several loans in a short period of time is a major red flag for bank fraud.

The last witness of the day was Gary Seferian, a VP at Banc of California.  He testified that Manafort applied for a $5 million loan to flip houses with his son-in-law Jeffrey Yohai (The Indicted). but received only $1 million after falsifying records for his loan application.  Gary also said that if DMP’s income was $400,000 and not the $4,400,000 that the loan application claimed, his bank would have not likely approved the loan.

 

Maria Butina, the Russian national accused of infiltrating the NRA and Republican political circles, received funding for her American activities from a Moscow billionaire. That’s according to U.S. prosecutors in their indictment of Butina.

But what the prosecutors didn’t say was that when Butina needed money from the oligarch, Konstantin Nikolaev, she went to a Kremlin-linked public relations power player named Igor Pisarsky for the cash. That’s according to two sources familiar with her activities, speaking to The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity.

Pisarsky was Butina’s point of contact for the Nikolaev money, according to these sources—the face of the financing. According to one of the sources, he essentially acted like he was distributing grant money.

This information, previously unreported, highlights the breadth of Butina’s support network; she had friends in a wide variety of high places. In Paul Erickson, she had a longtime Republican insider with close ties to the right’s most powerful groups. In Alexander Torshin, she had a Kremlin ally who was deeply involved in Russia’s banking sector. In Konstantin Nikolaev, she had an oligarch willing to help bankroll her undertakings. And now, in Igor Pisarsky, she had a worldly, sophisticated public relations professional whose firm boasts having worked for a host of Kremlin entities, as well as Vladimir Putin’s political party. Pisarsky’s firm also has worked for two banks whose CEOs have faced U.S. sanctions, according to its website and reports.

Butina’s attorney declined to comment for this story. Pisarsky also declined to comment.

His friend Svetlana Bolshakova, an orchestra musician and editor of the musical radio broadcaster Orpheus, told The Daily Beast that Pisarsky is currently traveling in South America.

“Igor is far from both politics and politicians. He is all about a good party, a good trip, or a good meal,” Bolshakova said. “Last time I saw him was about a month ago in a crowd of Moscow’s hip elite. I don’t think he ever hangs out with any government people, at least I’ve never seen him around any officials. He is an independent person, a co-owner of two hip restaurants. He adores cooking.”

Pisarsky and Butina are Facebook friends, and she has liked several of his pictures. She also wrote about him on her blog: An entry on March 12, 2015, describes Pisarsky as a “good friend” and says she attended his birthday party.

 

Randy Credico.  You might remember this radio host and comedian from such memorable days in the news like Daily Check-In 12/13/2017 , Daily Check-In 04/12/2018, and Unfinished Business.

So far we’ve learned that Mueller’s team has subpoenaed and/or interviewed Roger Stone’s protege (Sam Nunbert), his Social Media assistant (Andrew Miller), his Madam (Krisin Davis), and his old friend (Randy Credico).

 

Can we just stop listening to Rudy?  His job is just to lie for Trump to the Fox News crowd.  Everything that comes out of his mouth is either a blatant lie or the ramblings of someone with dementia.  Usually both.

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

Space Force

Space Force.  Just in case the Vulcans arrive and get a little uppity with their logic and pointy ears…

Here’s the hypocrisy of Republicans in a nut shell.  Pence said that starting the Space Force would cost $8 billion over the next 5 years.  But, they can’t afford $1.6 billion in funds for Veterans Affairs (Daily Check-In 07/19/2018).  The money they want to spend on making sure Space is safe could instead be spent on the VA.  But, fuck the veterans.  Until the GOP needs to use them as props for some parade or to shout down any sign of dissent or disapproval with the state of the country.

Devin Nunes

 

Chris Collins

 

At President Trump’s rally in Tampa last week, a familiar face made it back in the national news. Maurice Symonette, also known as Michael the Black Man, was front and center in a crowd hurling invective at CNN reporter Jim Acosta, waving a “Blacks for Trump” sign. Symonette has been a regular at Trump rallies all over Florida and as far away as Arizona. Just last month, he popped up at the U.S. border to appear in a video with disgraced sheriff-turned-pardoned-Senate-candidate Joe Arpaio.

All that national exposure raises an obvious question: Who is paying the bills for Symonette, a former member of Miami’s murderous Yahweh ben Yahweh cult, to represent “Blacks for Trump” at Trump rallies?  Since Blacks for Trump isn’t a registered political organization with the Florida Division of Elections or the Federal Election Commission, there are no public records of any donations funding the group’s operations.

It seems unlikely Symonette is fronting the cash for his travel himself because he filed for bankruptcy this past May. In federal court records, he reports that he’s unemployed, generates no income, and has $0 in the bank. He also says four banks have staked claims on $2.9 million worth of property around Dade County.

So how is he getting to Arizona and Tampa to stand behind Trump on national TV?  Reached on his cell phone, Symonette declined to discuss his group’s financing. “You guys are horrible racists,” he said. “You are lawbreakers and you’re mean… God is going to punish you horribly.”

Throughout the ’80s, Symonette — then known as Maurice Woodside — was a devoted follower of Yahweh ben Yahweh, a charismatic preacher who wore white robes and called himself the Messiah. Federal prosecutors later accused Yahweh, whose real name was Hulon Mitchell Jr., of ordering his followers to murder at least 14 people, including random white vagrants who were massacred as an initiation rite.

Symonette was charged in federal court along with Mitchell and 15 other followers in 1990; while the cult’s leader was later convicted of 14 charges of murder conspiracy and served nearly two decades in prison, Symonette and six other cult members were acquitted.

…

Symonette filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on May 16, listing Washington Mutual, Homecomings Financial, HSBC Bank, and Indymac Bank as his creditors; each institution laid claim to one of four houses. Three are in North Miami-Dade County, and one is near Kendall.

…

In his bankruptcy case, he’s repeated those allegations about the banking system being crooked to Judge Laurel M. Isicoff. He’s also repeatedly sought to change hearings that overlapped with Trump events. Symonette suggested the scheduling conflicts are a sinister plot to keep him away from the spotlight at Trump rallies.

“Creditors know that I have a rally in Arizona on July 25 and deliberately set the hearing on that date to cause me and my musical band to miss the performance and the rally with the bus we rented,” he wrote in a motion filed the same morning as the Phoenix rally. “The creditors overheard that at the house we are disputing… and set that hearing on the same date just to harm me.”

That motion was denied, as was another he filed on July 30, just before Trump’s Tampa rally. “As founder of Blacks for Trump, (I) have rented vans to go to Trump’s rally. We need to make the country aware how the banks (FOREIGNERS FROM THE EAST) are illegally taking WHITE AND BLACK PEOPLE’S houses away.”

I’m shocked.  Not that the “Blacks for Trump” guy is nuts, but that he’s former-member-of-a-death-cult crazy.  There’s not much room above death cult crazy in the Cray Cray Pyramid.

Here’s some free advice for Beto O’Rouke…

Use this request in attack ads on Ted Cruz.  Show clips of Trump attacking Ted, his wife, and his father.  Cut it together with news of this request.  Include a Voice Over (VO) saying “If Ted Cruz won’t protect his own family, what makes you think he’ll protect Texas?”

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

Laura Ingraham

 

InfoWars/Alex Jones

 

Tribune/Sinclair Merger

 

 

SCOTUS

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

PUERTO RICO

 

ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

So this is where we are. The Republican Party can’t win using ordinary methods. On the process side, they can win only by inflating the white vote via gerrymandering, cracked-and-packed districts, and ruthless black voter suppression. On the policy side, they can win only with heavy dollops of strident and outright bigotry against Mexicans, Muslims, blacks, Hispanics, Chinese, and anyone else who comes along. Even Canadians will do in a pinch.

Today, the Republican Party exists for one and only one purpose: to pass tax cuts for the rich and regulatory rollbacks for corporations. They accomplish this using one and only method: unapologetically racist appeals to win the votes of the heartland riff-raff they otherwise treat as mere money machines for their endless mail-order cons.

Like it or not, this is the modern Republican Party. It no longer serves any legitimate purpose. It needs to be crushed and the earth salted behind it, while a new conservative party rises to take its place. This new party should be conservative; brash; ruthless when it needs to be; as simpleminded as any major party usually is; and absolutely dedicated to making Democrats look like idiots. There should be no holds barred except for one: no appeals to racism. None. Not loud ones, not subtle ones. Whatever else it is, it should be a conservative party genuinely open to any person of any color.

When that happens, I will change my mind about how we should fight the Republican Party. Until then, no, I don’t think Brett Kavanaugh deserves any help from Democrats and I don’t think liberals should waste any time tut-tutting over Twitter mockery from 2013 that all of us know perfectly well doesn’t represent any genuine anti-white sentiment.

Nos victi Reipublicae. That’s it. Whatever works best, I’m in.

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

ELECTION 2018

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

RUMOR MILL

 

 

That’s it for Thursday.  Friday is going to be a weird one. As I’m wrapping this post up, Andrew Miller is in contempt of court, the Manafort Trial started the day on a different foot, and Omarosa’s getting attacked by the dumbest White House in

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 08/08/2018

Wednesday, August 8th

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

The Manafort Trial, Day 7

Day 7 of the Manafort Tax Evasion trial began with Rick Gates in cross-examination.  The defense tried to blow up his credibility even more by alleging that he had multiple affairs and lied about it.  During rebuttal questioning, he outlined that if he lied, the Special Counselor’s office would destroy their plea offer and recommend that he serve every charge against him consecutively, not concurrently.  In that case, he’s looking at over 100 years in jail.

The next witness was Forensic Accountant Morgan Magionos.  He testified about how he was able to trace offshore bank accounts back to Paul Manafort. That included tracing wire transfers from the accounts to high-end luxury vendors.

After that came Michael Welch from the IRS.  He testified that Manafort didn’t pay taxes on at least $16.4 million in unreported income.

Remember, this is a tax evasion and money laundering case.

Counteroffers?  This isn’t a fucking house purchase, this is a goddamned investigation.

The longer this shit drags out, the more I’m convinced that not only will there not be an interview, but that Mueller wouldn’t interview him anyway since Trump is a target, not a subject.

Here’s the thing with the report…

The moment that it hits the House and Senate leadership, it’s up to them whether or not to release it all, release a redacted version, or keep it under wraps.  It’s not a consensus choice, but if even one of them wants to release it, they can release it.  If all but one of them says keep it up under wraps, but one says “fuck that, fuck you, and fuck anyone who looks like you, I’m posting this shit on Twitter now”, they can do that.

 

TRAITOR TOTS

Chris Collins

Chris Collins, a Republican congressman from upstate New York, surrendered to the FBI on Wednesday morning on securities fraud-related charges, prosecutors said.

Collins, 68, faces insider trading charges along with his son, Cameron Collins, and Stephen Zarsky, the father of Cameron Collins’ fiancée, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York.

The case is related to Innate Immunotherapeutics, an Australian biotech company, on which the elder Collins served on the board.

Collins, one of Donald Trump’s early supporters in his bid for president, is expected to appear in federal court later Wednesday in Manhattan.

Wow.  Here’s a link to the indictment.  Chris Collins is a Republican from New York, and was a leading member of the Trump Transition Team.

This sounds like a pump and dump scheme.  The way it works is that a group hypes a company up, selling them as the best thing since the invention of the wheel, puts stock out there, sells a bunch of it to a bunch of marks, then right before bad news hits, all of the principal parties sell their stock at a high price, leaving everyone else with now worthless stock.

Chris Collins telling the world that we should leave Trump’s taxes alone while he was lying to investigators.

AdamParkhomenko: Womp, womp Chris

Here’s Chris Collins at the White House at the time the email was sent.  Here’s a tweet to the actual picture from the call mentioned in the indictment.

Yeah, that happened.  Part of the indictment indicates that Chris called his son at 7:16 PM on the night in question.  The call lasted a little more than 6 minutes.  At 7:17 PM, he was seen walking out of the White House while on the phone.

 

Four other members of Congress, not including the former Secretary or Health and Human Services Tom Price invested in this company at a discounted stock price after talking to Chris Collins.  At best, he stole their money and cost them a small fortune.  At worst, they’re accomplices.

 

Rand Paul

All of them are Republicans.  ALL OF THEM.  Not a single one of those senators was a Democrat.

 

3336

Gee, I wonder how it is that the Russians got their hands on a United States Senate bill that hasn’t been made public yet, that only members of the Senate and their staff would have access to.

I mean, it’s not like a certain Senator from Kentucky with a long history of always taking Russia’s side delivered anything to Vladimir Putin.  Oh, wait…

 

Devin

Going for the Trifecta of Fuckery today is Devin Fucking Nunes.  I’m not surprised that he spoke freely in a room without the press, or that he openly admits to obstructing the Russian Investigation or serving as a firewall for the traitor known as Donald Trump, and not even that even he has his problems with Trump’s tweets and stupid comments.  The only thing I’m surprised about is that someone thought bringing him in to help fund raise was a good idea.

 

Omarosa

Oh, FFS.  The day when 7th or 8th craziest story of the day is that Omarosa wrote a book is truly a screwed up day.  Ok, enough with the joke about her being able to read and write.  I’m surprised that half the people working for Trump are not functionally illiterate.  What’s really shocking is that she worked at the White House for almost a year, constantly recorded meetings on her phone, and NO ONE CAUGHT HER OR STOPPED HER.

 

RUSSIAN ATTACK 2018

I’ve got a bad feeling we’re going to hear more stories like this heading into the election.  This isn’t “meddling”, this is an Act of War.

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

FCC

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

Sanctions over Skripal Poisoning

I’m not a betting man, but I’d put good money that this was done without Trump’s approval, sign-off, or input, and that he’ll lose his shit and go all “Putin’s a good guy” like the traitorous shit he is.

 

TRADE WAR

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

SCOTUS

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

ELECTION 2018

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY…

 

RUMOR MILL

From Claude’s tweet about the Iran Deal, $20 says that the adult children include Jared Kushner.  From yesterday’s post (Daily Check-In 08/07/2018), Kushner’s family sold 666 Fifth Avenue to Brookfield for enough money to get out from underneath their upside down loan.  Brookfield is owned by the Emiratis.  Half of $3.6 billion is $1.8 billion, which is how much Kushner’s family owed on their loan.

 

That’s it for Wednesday.  The Manafort Tax Trial continues on Thursday, and there’s an update on the Sinclair-Tribune sale.  Also, Space Force.  I’m trying to not laugh while typing that shit.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 08/07/2018

Tuesday, August 8th.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

The Manafort Trial

Day 6 continued with Rick Gates testifying all day.  The first few hours were spent with him guiding the prosecution through everything from how the bank accounts were set up to the use of shell companies to hide payments to corroborating the evidence of other witnesses like the accountant and bookkeeper.  The bank accounts and companies were purchased “off the shelf” by their Ukranian partners, and were set up by their lawyer in Cyprus.  The Ukranian Oligarchs would pay one shell company, then that company would pay Manafort’s shell company in Cyprus, then Manafort would pay himself from the shell companies.  Over time, there was a crackdown on Cyprus bank accounts, so they set up accounts in The Grenadines to use as a stopover.

Rick Gates also explained the fake invoices.

Rick Gates explained several apparently fake invoices from vendors who did work for Paul Manafort: He created those for banks in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

When Manafort moved his banking from Cyprus to the Grenadines, Gates explained, they required more documentation. “They asked for invoices” that had the name of the companies Manafort was using on them, Gates said. So at Manafort’s direction, he would make a “modified invoice.”

“The payment was legitimate,” he said. But “it had to have the name of the company itself” — and the vendors hadn’t provided those.

He said he took the information on the invoices from Manafort — suggesting any typos were his boss’s fault. The vendors never actually saw those invoices.

So they created fake invoices from real companies for real dollar amounts to give to their new bank to justify the withdraw of large amounts of money.  The invoices never made their way to the vendors, so when they were shown them on the witness stand, it was the first time they’ve seen these fakes.

The cross examination was tense.  Rick admitted that he committed crimes with Paul Manafort, and stole from him as well.  He also admitted that it’s possible he may have stolen from the Trump Campaign and the Trump Inauguration Committee by submitting false or exaggerated expense reimbursements.  Not really surprising, considering he stole from a mobbed-up criminal like Manafort.

Also, we finally heard about Federal Savings Bank and Steve Calk.  We’ve talked about Steve before (Daily Check-In 02/21/2018, Daily Check-In 02/22/2018, Daily Check-In 02/23/2018, Daily Check-In 07/23/2018) but for a brief refresher, he’s the head of Federal Savings Bank in Chicago, a bank that mostly offers mortgages to veterans.  I say mostly because FSB also approved a loan for Paul Manafort.  An illegal loan, that was a complete farce, as has already been entered into evidence.  It’s been rumored that this loan was part of a pay for play scheme involving Steve Calk becoming the Secretary of the Army in exchange for giving Manafort this loan.  Rick Gates just admitted it was under oath.

One thing that will likely further back up this claim is that two of the witnesses granted immunity in this trial are employees of FSB.  Steve Calk does not appear on the witness list.  He’s probably getting ready for his own date with the FBI.

 

 

COHEN

I just made this joke the other day (Daily Check-In 08/02/2018), but once again the neglectful parent of the Russian Investigation is back, this time with a gift card for his kids after he forgot to pick them up from a school dance and they had to get an Uber home.

According to several reports, Investigators are looking into Cohen’s taxes for possible, fuck it, likely illegalities.  They’re doing this with the help of Cohen’s old business partner the “Taxi King” Evgeny Freidman (Cooperating Witnesses).  Freidman pleaded guilty to Tax Evasion.  Freidman and Cohen used the same accountant.

 

ROSS

Wilbur Ross could be “among the biggest grifters in American history,” according to Forbes magazine, amid new allegations that he may have wrongly siphoned off more than $120 million from business associates. An investigation, citing 21 people who have worked with the man who is now President Trump’s commerce secretary, claims Ross stole “a few million here and a few million there” from various companies. Forbes reports: “All told, these allegations—which sparked lawsuits, reimbursements, and a Securities and Exchange Commission fine—come to more than $120 million.” Ross’ former colleagues offer very unkind words about him. “He’ll push the edge of truthfulness and use whatever power he has to grab assets,” said New York financier Asher Edelman, while another of Ross’ former colleagues said: “He’s a pathological liar.” They say he is obsessed with money, with two former colleagues recounting that he took handfuls of Sweet’ N Low packets from a restaurant near his office, so he didn’t have to go out and buy some for himself. (A Ross spokesman disputed that claim—and denied that he sweetens his coffee.)

Each time I hear about Wilbur Ross, he sounds like a bigger thief.  There was his appearance in the Paradise Papers that linked him to Putin’s son-in-law (Daily Check-In 11/06/2017).  Then there was the insider trading (Daily Check-In 12/12/2017).  Then there was him not selling his stakes in a company co-owned by the Chinese government while serving on the Cabinet ( Daily Check-In 06/18/2018). Now, we get another report of him not just being a cheapskate, skinflint, and thief, but a petty one at that.

Really, $120 million?  That’s twice the amount that Manafort laundered for Deripaska over the years.

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

Here’s the pic, in case it disappears from Twitter

RU Allies

For those of you that don’t read Russian, neither do I.  But I recognize the faces and can decipher symbols.

Top Row, Left to Right:

  • Dennis Kucinich (D)
  • Dana Rohrabacher (R)
  • Ron Paul (R)

Bottom Row, Left to Right:

  • Bernie Sanders (Independent but one time Democrat)
  • Michael Flynn (R)
  • Rand Paul (R)

All of them have historically defended Russia to a fault.  Mike Flynn was indicted for lying to the FBI about his ties to Russia, and I’ve talked more than once about his affinity for Putin.

The other five are all examples of Horseshoe Theory.  Dennis and Bernie have always been on the edge of the left wing for years, having long been the faces of the Progressive Socialist movement.  Rand and his father Ron are the faces of the Libertarian movement.  Dana is the most normal out of these five, and even then most of his colleagues think he’s a Russian stooge.

 

While financial terms were not disclosed in the announcement, theWall Street Journal reported that the Kushner Companies will use the money from the Brookfield lease to buy out Vornado, according to the Journal. Brookfield will also pay the entire 99-year rent up front in order to allow Kushner Companies to deal with the debt, typically 99-year lease structures include an annual ground rent according to the Journal.

Brookfield agreed to an investment in the building early in the year, but the sale of the 99-year lease is a much larger deal than originally expected. According to the Journal, the sale will ensure that the company is able to repay the debt from the building, but it’s not clear if it would net any profit.

Jared Kushner, the president’s adviser and husband to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, helped run the Kushner Companies at the time of 666 Fifth Avenue’s purchase. Kushner’s real estate interests were placed in a trust controlled by other members of his family when he joined the White House.

Originally, the Kushner Companies planned to use $7.5 billion in capital from Chinese insurance giant Anbang to remodel the aging tower into a mixed-use retail, condo, and hotel space. The deal eventually fell through.

Brookfield will sink $600 million into renovations for the building according to the Journal.

 

FIGHTING BACK

Regrets

There are a lot of people out there who are coming around to acknowledge what they did and how terrible Trump is.

Welcome them to the party, there’s punch and pie in the back.

 

INFOWARS

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

#NEVERAGAIN

During the presidential campaign, Everytown for Gun Safety took note of Pence’s role in the gun pipeline that threatens cities like Chicago: “Rather than strengthening public safety laws—even as Indiana continued to supply crime guns to cities around the country—Governor Pence has parroted the gun lobby’s talking points and promoted their extremist agenda of pushing guns everywhere, for everyone, no questions asked.”

Pence received NRA endorsements in all of his elections between 2002 and 2012, and received an “A” grade for opposing gun safety legislation during that time as well.

As governor, Pence signed legislation increasing immunity from liability for gun manufacturers and repeatedly signed bills that increased the variety of guns that could be used in Indiana.

In its most recent survey of gun flows, Indiana was by far the biggest source of guns to Illinois. According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), 1,366 guns recovered in Illinois could be traced to Indiana. The next closest for a neighboring state was Missouri, with 434.

Conservatives have often cited Chicago’s problem with gun crime as an argument against gun laws, but ignore the role of lax gun laws in allowing the flow of firearms.

Chicago is also often invoked by the Right due to its large black population. But as the protests after the shootings show, that populace has often spoke out in favor of action — it’s just a series of actions that the NRA and Republicans oppose.

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

FCC

The reason for the supposed DDoS attack was John Oliver telling all of his viewers to contact the FCC and tell them how they felt about Net Neutrality.  The turnout was so great that the FCC comment website went down.  Instead of acknowledging the outpouring of support, that worthless fuckstick Ajit Pai claimed that the site was hacked and under attack, because there was no way that many people could comment about Net Neutrality.

Fuck Ajit Pai.

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

SCOTUS

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

CALIFORNIA FIRES

 

ELECTION 2018

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

RUMOR MILL

Deep in the thread above is a piece of RUMINT (Rumored Intelligence, or high-level gossip) that I didn’t catch about Jared Kushner flipping and cooperating for the last few months.

Looks like things are heating up.  That’s the second time in less than a week I’ve talked about FEATHERS.  Keep an eye out.

 

That’s it for Tuesday.  Wednesday has some fun stuff on the agenda.  The Manafort Trial enters it’s seventh day, results from some elections are coming in, I have yet another reason to hate the Green Party, and a Congressman gets arrested for Insider Trading.

In the Rumor Mill section, there’s a tweet in there about how Jared Kushner might have flipped after December and has been cooperating ever since.  I personally don’t buy it yet.  If this is the case, it’s an extremely well-kept secret.  Not that I’m the end-all be-all on secrets, but this isn’t even floating around the normal parts of the mill.  Jared is an extremely high-ranked target, and there’s enough out in the press to nail him for tons of financial crimes, conspiracy, espionage, and treason.  The only two people above him in this cavalcade of fuckery are Trump and Pence.  The only way that he gets a deal and accepts it is if he personally delivers Trump on the worst of the accusations.  While that is possible, I still doubt that it’s happening.  If I hear more that he is cooperating, I’ll post it here.

 

That’s it for today.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur