Tag: Politics

Daily Check-In 04/17/2018

Tuesday, April 17th.  Tax Day in the United States.

 

COHEN

 

STORMYWATCH

He looks like a douchier, Dollar Store version of Tom Brady.

Oh, here we go again.

Barbara Moore was the December 1992 Playmate of the Month.

 

COMEY DON’T PLAY THAT

“President Trump, I don’t follow him on Twitter but I get to see his tweets tweeted, I don’t know how many, but some tweets this past couple of days that I should be in jail. The president of the United States just said that a private citizen should be jailed. And I think the reaction of most of us was, ‘meh, that’s another one of those things.’ This is not normal. This is not OK,” Comey told NPR in an interview broadcast Tuesday morning. “The reason I’m talking in terms of morality is, those are the things that matter most to this country. And there’s a great danger we’ll be numbed into forgetting that, and then only a fool would be consoled by some policy victory.”

…

“This is not some tin pot dictatorship where the leader of the country gets to say ‘the people I don’t like go to jail.’ Our Lady Justice wears a blindfold. And the reason all those statues all over the country have a blindfold is, that’s the way it has to be,” Comey told NPR. “Lady Justice can’t be peeking under the blindfold to see if Donald Trump wants her to convict so-and-so and not convict so-and-so. If we lose that, we’ve lost the rule of law, and so there’s great danger in the president of the United States saying ‘you should be in jail.’”

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Back in the 90’s, Ken Starr was the Special Counselor investigating Whitewater, a land deal involving the Clinton family. That morphed into corruption in Arkansas, a couple claims of sexual assault, and eventually Bill Clinton lying under oath about getting a blowjob from Monica Lewinsky.

Throughout the whole process, there were several court cases that were heard, but many of the documents were sealed. On Monday, a judge decided to unseal 11 cases related to the Clinton Investigation.

Before anyone gets off a tizzy screaming “But Hilary” or “Why are reliving this crap?”, this is actually a pretty cool thing. These cases dealt with unprecedented legal items at the time, like “Can the White House be subpoenaed to turn over their visitor logs?” or “Are physical descriptions of the President’s penis admissible in court?” or “Does attorney-client privilege extend to all matters that take place in front of an attorney?” Prescient questions that we’re asking today.

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA AND FACEBOOK

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

On May 25, 2017, KFAQ, a radio station based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, received a cease-and-desist letter signed by two lawyers for Hannity: Victoria Toensing and Jay Alan Sekulow. Toensing’s signature sits above her name and that of her husband Joseph E. diGenova, the members of diGenova and Toensing LLP, who are identified as “Counsel for Sean Hannity,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Atlantic. Sekulow is also identified in the letter page as a “Counsel for Sean Hannity.”

Sekulow is now the only known personal attorney for President Trump working full-time on the response to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiry. Sekulow recently announced that diGenova and Toensing had been hired to join him, before reversing course. The letter to the radio station was sent before Sekulow joined Trump’s team.

The advisor, Elizabeth Pierce, is the former chief executive of Quintillion, an Alaska-based fiber optic cable provider operating out of Anchorage. In her capacity as CEO, Pierce allegedly raised more than $250 million from two New York-based investment companies using forged contracts with other companies guaranteeing hundreds of millions of dollars in future revenue. Pierce resigned from Quintillion in August of last year, and she stepped down from her role in Pai’s Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (BDAC) the following month.

“As it turned out, those sales agreements were worthless because the customers had not signed them,” US attorney Geoffrey Berman said in prepared remarks, as reported by the WSJ. “Instead, as alleged, Pierce had forged counter-party signatures on contract after contract. As a result of Pierce’s deception, the investment companies were left with a system that is worth far less than Pierce had led them to believe.” Pierce was trying to raise money to help build out a fiber optic system that would wire Alaska with high-speed internet and better help connect it to networks in other US states. Pierce was charged with wire fraud last Thursday and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

Did I go through the complete list of victims? No.

There is one victim. None of us want talk about him.

But given my age, I have the courage to say it. This victim, his name is Alexandre Bissonnette.

Alexandre, before being a killer he was a victim himself. Before planting his bullets in the heads of his victims, somebody planted ideas more dangerous than the bullets in his head.

This little kid didn’t wake up in the morning and say ‘Hey guys instead of going to have a picnic or watching the Canadiens, I will go kill some people in the mosque.’ It doesn’t happen that way.

Day after day, week after week, month after month, certain politicians unfortunately, and certain reporters unfortunately, and certain media were poisoning our atmosphere.

-Imam Hassan Guillet

A Phoenix judge denied Arpaio’s request to erase his conviction entirely, saying in October that the presidential pardon didn’t “revise the historical facts of this case.” The appeals panel, by a 2-1 vote, said that since the U.S. Justice Department won’t defend that ruling, an outside lawyer must be appointed to argue against Arpaio.

 

SAY GOODBYE TO THE ECONOMY: SPECIAL TAX DAY DAY BEFORE TAX DAY SPECIAL

China’s Commerce Ministry said Tuesday that customs officers will charge importers a fee of about 179% on US sorghum after an investigation found the shipments were unfairly subsidizedand damaging Chinese producers.

Sorghum is a grain that is used to feed livestock and make a liquor that’s very popular with Chinese drinkers.

China is the largest buyer of American sorghum products. Its imports of the crop were worth about $960 million last year, according to Chinese customs data.

Yes, I had the exact same question.  What the hell is sorghum?

 

CAN WE GET BACK TO POLITICS?

 

RUMOR MILL:  CALLING A MOBBED-UP SPADE A MOBBED-UP SPADE

Lincoln’s Bible has made digging into Trump’s mob ties into an art form.  Now that Jim Comey called Trump’s presidency a Mob Coup, it’s time to go back and look at all of the hard work he did.

Spicy Mic posted Russia’s Telegram ban is a big, convoluted mess | The Verge earlier.  Russia is trying to ban Telegram, a messaging app that is not infiltrated by Russian Intelligence.  Problem is, their attempts at turning it off are breaking everything else.  Spicy’s holding on to something related to this, and she’s teasing that it’s big.  Let’s wait and see.

Former NSA analyst connects the dots between Sean Hannity, Julian Assange and Russian spies

It’s nice to see the MSM picking up what we’ve been talking about for over a year.

 

That’s it for today.  I was going to get into more detail, but something came up in the real world that I have to take care of.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daily Check-In 04/16/2018

Monday April 16th.  It was a nice, quiet Monday, right?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Fuck that.

 

MICHAEL COHEN IS FUCKED HARDER THAN STORMY DANIELS IN VENDETTA (2017 from Wicked Pictures link to IAFD potential NSFW)

First, the Wall Street Journal discovered that Michael Cohen used Essential Consultants LLC, the same company that he used to pay off Stormy Daniels, to receive payment from Elliot Broidy.

Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, used the same Delaware limited-liability company in two secret deals relating to alleged sexual encounters involving his clients, according to people familiar with the matter.

Venture capitalist Elliott Broidy paid an initial installment of $62,500 to the company, Essential Consultants LLC, as part of Mr. Cohen’s $250,000 total fee for negotiating a nondisclosure agreement related to Mr. Broidy’s affair with a former Playboy model who alleged he had impregnated her, a person familiar with the matter said.

Federal prosecutors are examining money flowing in and out of Essential Consultants as part of a broad investigation into Mr. Cohen’s activities to silence women with allegations against Mr. Trump or those in his orbit, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the $1.6 million agreement between Mr. Broidy—the Republican National Committee’s deputy finance chairman with ties to Mr. Trump—and the model on Friday. Mr. Broidy later resigned his RNC post.

Cohen assisted Broidy in his abortion hush money, and had him pay Essential Consultants 1/16th of a million dollars, or 1/4th of 1/4th of a million dollars.

That payment to his shell company destroys the argument that it was created and only used for Stormy Daniels.

Mr. Broidy paid the remaining fee installments totaling $187,500 directly to Mr. Cohen after the Journal revealed in January that the Clifford payment was made through Essential Consultants, the person said.

The last three installment payments were paid directly to Cohen.

The monthslong investigation stemmed partly from “suspicious activity reports” filed by banks, including one that included details of Mr. Cohen’s payment to Ms. Clifford, people familiar with the matter said.

A suspicious activity report?

The Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office is examining whether Mr. Cohen committed bank fraud by, among other things, taking out a home-equity credit line to pay for the Clifford agreement, a person familiar with the matter said.

Why the hell is a man who’s supposedly worth $10 million refinancing his home and taking out a second mortgage to make a $130,000 payment?

Mr. Cohen transferred the payment to an attorney for Ms. Clifford from an Essential Consultants account at First Republic Bank, according to people familiar with the matter. He has said the funds came from his home-equity line at the same bank.

Investigators are examining whether Mr. Cohen fraudulently used a bank loan for something other than the purpose he described on his loan application, the person said.

The Journal previously reported that First Republic Bank, which Mr. Cohen used to wire the payment to Ms. Clifford’s lawyer in October 2016, conducted its own investigation into the transaction after receiving a subpoena from federal authorities, according to another person familiar with the matter.

First Republic sent its findings to the Treasury Department in a so-called SAR, or suspicious-activity report, the person said. Such reports are required to be sent to the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network when banks observe transactions that have no apparent lawful purpose or deviate inexplicably from a customer’s normal bank activity.

Oh, shit.  FinCEN doesn’t fuck around.

Part of the investigation into Mr. Cohen involves payments made by American Media Inc., publisher of the National Enquirer, and its officials including Chairman and Chief Executive David Pecker, a person familiar with the matter said.

Mr. Cohen communicated with Mr. Pecker and AMI’s chief content officer, Dylan Howard, during the course of negotiations for AMI to pay another Playboy model, Karen McDougal, to sell her story of an alleged 2006 affair with Mr. Trump to the National Enquirer, a person familiar with the matter said.

The Journal first revealed in November 2016 that AMI paid $150,000 to Ms. McDougal for her exclusive story of the alleged affair, which it then didn’t publish, a tactic known in the tabloid world as “catch and kill.”

Ms. McDougal filed suit last month seeking to extricate herself from that contract.

They’re tying  AMI/National Enquirer directly to the Cohen investigation?  They are fucked.

Separately, Mr. Cohen succeeded around 2013 in killing a story Us Weekly was preparing about an alleged affair between Donald Trump Jr., who had been a judge a year earlier on the television show, “Celebrity Apprentice,” and one of the contestants, Aubrey O’Day, a member of the singing duo Dumblonde, according to people familiar with the matter.

The magazine, then owned by Wenner Media, had what staffers believed to be a solid source on the alleged affair by the younger Mr. Trump and called the Trump Organization for comment, according to the people involved in the matter. They received a call back from Mr. Cohen, who threatened legal action and became so irate that they muted the call while he spoke, one of these people said.

“We were all on speakerphone and huddled around the phone,” this person said. “He was just one of these New York characters where he was just like swearing at us and totally over-the-top threatening.”

The magazine’s staff didn’t believe it was a big story that would be worth a legal fight and had a good working relationship with the elder Mr. Trump on stories related to the TV show “The Apprentice,” so they dropped the story.

The story of the alleged affair was reported in entertainment media last month when Donald Trump Jr.’s wife filed for divorce; Mr. Cohen’s involvement in the Us Weekly story hasn’t previously been reported.

Holy Shit, this was kicked off from an SAR sent to FinCEN?! Cohen is fucked. Like, seriously, ultimately, dead man walking fucked.

FinCEN is the investigative and crime fighting arm of the Treasury Department. They are more than capable of taking down white-collar crime by themselves, but if they referred this to the FBI, it means that not only did they find enough shit to bury him alive for financial crimes, but they dug up shit on him that is outside of their purview, and they felt that it was so serious that they had no other choice than to refer this to the FBI.

Not only did they find proof of money laundering and bank fraud, but they found proof of other, non-financial crimes.  Considering that Michael Cohen has been tied to everything from extortion to espionage, it makes sense why they were called in.

Oh, but things get worse.

Cohen threatened journalists back in 2013 to spike a story about Donnie Jr. fucking one of the apprentices on Celebrity Apprentice.

So, not only did Cohen take part in TWO taxi medallion scams in TWO different cities with TWO groups of Russian Mafia and La Cosa Nostra, but he sent emails about his taxi business FROM HIS TRUMP ORG EMAIL.

What are taxi medallions?  Taxicabs of the United States – Wikipedia gives an explanation, but the short version is that it’s a system of regulating the number of certified cab drivers in a city, but the lack of medallions usually means that there is a tiny  supply available.  Organized crime has long used these medallions as a method of Money Laundering

Oh, but it still gets worse…

Last week, instead of showing up at his court hearing last week, Cohen went out on the town to hang out with some friends.  One of them appears to be Rotem Rosen, and another is James von Moltke, CFO of Deutschebank.

Hanging out with a known link to Russian Oligarchs and the Kremlin, and a link to a bank under investigation for laundering Russian money while one is supposed to be Federal court explaining that they didn’t do anything violating the law requires a special kind of stupid.

Oh, but it gets even worse…

Third, [huge redaction], further belying the notion that Cohen is currently engaged in any significant practice of law.

Fourth, the USAO-SDNY has specific reason to doubt that the seized materials will include the volume and nature of attorney-client communications that Cohen claims. This is because the USAO-SDNY has already obtained search warrants – covert until this point – on multiple different email accounts maintained by Cohen, and has conducted a privilege review of the materials obtained pursuant to those warrants. The results of that review, as resported by the USAO’s Filter Team, indicate that Cohen is in fact performing little to no legal work, and that zero emails were exchanged with President Trump.

So, at best, Cohen has three legal clients, and according to the prosecution, hasn’t practiced law in a long time.  Instead, he’s a fixer, someone who does the dirty work that a respectable lawyer wouldn’t do.  He’s a consigliere, Saul Goodman without the legal talent.

Cohen’s team already identified the first two clients in Donald Trump and Elliot Broidy.

Cohen was reluctant to name his third client…

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE: SEAN HANNITY IS COHEN’S THIRD CLIENT

Sean Hannity aired an entire episode last week, two days after the FBI raided Michael Cohen, explaining how Mueller was secretly corrupt. Trump, the President of the United States, endorsed this episode from Twitter. This was TWO DAYS after the FBI raided their shared attorney’s home, office, and hotel room.

Sean Hannity now enters a world of hurt. He and Trump conspired to mislead Hannity’s viewers into going after the FBI and the Rule of Law. Aside from all of the other crap that Hannity’s been rumored to be a part of, this is evidence of Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice.

 

STORYMWATCH

 

COMEY

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

“The same people who would criticize me for filing this bill would be absolutely angry if I wasn’t pounding the table for this bill if we were dealing with Hillary Clinton,” he argued. “So spare me your righteous indignation.”

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

Crosseyed Huckster posted a pic from the Situation Room during the Syrian attack showing VP Mike Pence taking part in the attack.

One problem, Pence was in Peru during the attack.

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA AND FACEBOOK

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

RED STATE TEACHER STRIKES

 

BLUE WAVE

 

 

IN OTHER NEWS

 

IN MEMORIAM

 

RUMOR MILL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s it for today.  This is the new normal.  The more that comes out about Cohen, the worse things will get for Trump and his team.  The worse they think things get, the worse they’ll act.  The worse they act, the worse the reactions against them, creating a feedback loop.

Mueller.  Comey.  Cohen.  Stormy.  Hannity.  Pruitt.  Pompeo.  Putin.  All of them are coming to a head, at once.

And I’m here, keeping an eye on it all, enjoying the shitshow.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Cooperating Witnesses

Cooperating Witnesses are people that help investigators by providing information against others that committed crimes, often times crimes that the witness either took part in directly or personally witnessed.  Usually, they’re cooperating with the prosecution and investigators for consideration of leniency in their own sentencing.

Just as with most other criminal cases, in the Mueller Investigation, a cooperating witness has to be able to offer something more than themselves.  They have to be able to provide evidence on someone or something more important than them.  For example, if a witness robbed a bank, and they can only provide evidence against someone committing petty vandalism, the prosecutor won’t work with them.  However, if the bank robber can implicate the rest of their crew, or provide evidence against the crime boss that ordered and planned the robbery, the prosecution might be willing to make a deal for testimony.  This deal could include a reduced prison sentence, immunity against certain crimes, or other considerations like serving a sentence in a specific prison or getting extra privileges.

This article, which will be updated over time, lists the confirmed, rumored, and disproven cooperating witnesses, and will be updated over time.

 

CONFIRMED

George Papadopoulos:  Member of the Foreign Policy team, he was the first person known to flip.  George was arrested in July 2017, and pled guilty to lying to the FBI in October 2017.  His deal was first reported on Daily Check-In 10/30/2017.  George reported to jail on Daily Check-In 11/26/2018.

George Nader: Assistant and confidant of Erik Prince, with deep ties to the United Arab Emirates.  A convicted pedophile, his deal was reported on Daily Check-In 03/06/2018.

Richard Pinedo: Sold bank account information on the Dark Web to Russians working for the Internet Research Agency so they could spoof PayPal.  First reported on Daily Check-in 02/16/2018.

Rick Gates:  Former business partner of Paul Manafort, was Deputy Campaign Manager of the Trump Presidential Campaign from June 2016 until the end.  Following the campaign, he was the Chief of Staff to the Chairman of the Trump Inaugural Committee chairman Tom Barrack.  His deal took a long time to work out, but was finalized on Daily Check-In 02/23/2018.

Mike Flynn: Former National Security Advisor to President Trump.  Pled guilty to lying to the FBI in exchange for his cooperation in multiple legal affairs on Daily Check-In 12/01/2017.

Jeffrey Yohai:  Paul Manafort’s former son-in-law, his deal became public on May 18, 2018.

Evgeny Freidman: Michael Cohen’s former business partner in Taxi Medallion businesses.  He pleaded guilty to tax evasion and agreed to testify against Donald Trump’s personal attorney on   May 22, 2018.

Sam Patten: A lobbyist that worked with Paul Manafort, he also worked for the Opposition Bloc, arranged a deal to funnel at least $50,000 of Ukrainian money into the Trump Inauguration Committee, and worked at SCL/Cambridge Analytica on messaging for Vladimir Putin.  His deal became public on Daily Check-In 08/31/2018.

Paul Manafort: Former Campaign Chairman for the Trump Presidential Campaign.  He agreed to a plea deal involving a cooperation agreement on Daily Check-In 09/14/2018.  The Special Counselor’s Office broke that deal on Daily Check-In 11/26/2018 after they announced that Manafort had lied repeatedly during the cooperation period.

Michael Cohen: Former attorney for Donald Trump.  He’s rumored to be cooperating with the Mueller Investigation, but as of this time does not have a formal agreement.  UPDATE: Formal update confirmed on Daily Check-In 11/29/2018

 

RUMORED

Steve Bannon:  Former White House Chief Strategist.  He’s rumored to have spilled the beans on Trump, Cambridge Analytica, and the Mercers to avoid espionage and treason charges.

 

DISPROVEN

Alex Van Der Zwan:  Rick Gates’ former attorney.  Convicted of lying to the FBI, serving a 30 day sentence in prison.

 

UPDATE HISTORY

April 15th: Began article and listed names.

May 18th:  Added Jeffrey Yohai.  Fleshed out details of each person.

May 22nd:  Added Evgeny Freidman.

September 3rd:  Added Sam Patten.

September 16th: Added Paul Manafort.

November 27th: Paul Manafort is no longer a cooperating witness.

December 6th: Michael Cohen is officially cooperating with Robert Mueller’s team as of November 29th, 2018.

Daily Check-In 04/13/2018

Friday, April 13th.  Bad day to be a Knights Templar.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION:  COHEN WAS IN PRAGUE, ROSENSTEIN AT PEACE, COHEN UNDER SURVEILLANCE FOR MONTHS, TRUMP CALLED COHEN BEFORE HEARING

Mueller’s team had a busy day.  First, let’s recap what we know…

Mueller interviewed Boente, and Trump’s backing out.  But Mueller doesn’t need

Remember in the Steele Dossier when Michael Cohen went to Prague, or somewhere in Central Europe?  Mueller has proof that Cohen was there.  This directly ties Michael Cohen, the personal lawyer for the President of the United States, to a mission from before the election in which he was acting on orders from Trump to coordinate treasonous activities with a rogue hostile state in Russia.

Robert Mueller has the receipts.  Literally.

Of course, no matter what happens, as soon as the Steele Dossier is mentioned, people ask “what about the pee pee tape?” Wait for it.  While it’s flying around the Twitterverse, we’ll probably see it after Cohen realizes how ultimately fucked he truly is.

The 12-page  document, which appears to have been signed by Broidy, outlines his role as providing “political advocacy” on behalf of a now sanctioned Russian bank, VTB.

The deal was  apparently  dated June 12, 2014, just weeks before VTB Bank was blacklisted by the United States and European Union as a key Kremlin asset following Russia’s invasion of Crimea. Russian President Vladimir Putin is guest of honour at VTB Bank’s investor conference every year.

The document raises serious questions about whether Broidy is in breach of the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), a law that has gained prominence following the investigation of special counsel Robert Mueller into foreign meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his aide Rick Gates have both been charged as a result of their work in Ukraine.

What is it with all of these high level Republicans stewarding Russian assets?

Elliot Broidy, first introduced on Daily Check-In 03/05/2018, was knee-deep in Thailand and the Middle East, joins Paul Manafort as “People Ukraine want to put in the stretching rack.”

He’s dirty AF, but don’t worry, his day gets worse.  Much worse.  Check out the GOP section for how he’s fucked.

Pun Jar total is $14.  You’ll see why.

 

Comey’s press tour begins, and the attacks against him have begun

Comey writes that Obama sat alone with him in the Oval Office in late November and told him I picked you to be FBI director because of your integrity and your ability. I want you to know that nothing — nothing — has happened in the last year to change my view.”

On the verge of tears, Comey told Obama, “Boy, were those words I needed to hear . . . . I’m just trying to do the right thing.”

“I know,” Obama said. “I know.”

Comey’s book will take a lot of the focus next week, and rightly so.  Expect some weird shit.

 

Cohen’s New York Shit List

Interesting thing about the hearing was that a lawyer hired by Trump on Wednesday night was at this hearing.  There was no mention that I saw of other clients’ sending an attorney to the hearing to fight for protecting the attorney-client privilege.

Oh, and Cohen set up a hush money payment?  I’ll have more details below in the GOP section.

Rosenstein

Ever work a job where you know you’re getting fired?  Eventually, a calmness overtakes you.  No matter what you do, you know you’re gone, so you might as well do what you need to do, and pull the Halide switch on the way out.

How are they going to make the case to fire him?  Leave it to Dipshit Cowpoke Devin Nunes (House Intelligence), Bob Goodlatte (House Judiciary), and Trey Gowdy (House Ethics).

IMG_6002

So, while the President is under investigation, the heads of the three largest committees in the House, two of which have announced their retirements, are demanding evidence from an ongoing criminal investigation in which at least one of the three is a known accomplice to the target subject of said investigation?

That’s how they plan on getting rid of Rosenstein.  He can either hand over evidence to the committee heads who will give that shit immediately to Trump, or ignore it and watch as they hold him in Contempt of Congress, then Trump uses that as an excuse to fire him.

But, in the few minutes since I typed those paragraphs, I realized something…Trump is calling the shots, and he’s not aware of what Rosenstein knows.  He thinks that all they have is Comey’s memo’s, because that’s all he hears.  He wants the memos so he can attack Comey with his own notes, but Trump doesn’t realize that Mueller and Rosenstein have a fuckton of evidence against Trump, not just the memos.  So, giving them the memos might not be terrible.  Bad, but not case-destroying.

Besides, Nunes is an idiot.  He’s setting himself up for an indictment of Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice.  Not that he hasn’t sealed that shit before, but Rosenstein can use this as a trap.  He gives them the information they ask for, but not the actual info. He gives them a canary in the coal mine.  Nunes takes this, gives it to Trump, and ipso facto, proof that Nunes et al obstructed justice.

Or, Rosenstein could drop some indictments on Monday.  Especially against some Russian hackers and their American coconspirators.

 

Trump’s Anger

News flash, overgrown toddler has temper tantrum.

 

Ready to act

Be ready, and stay frosty.

 

COLD WAR 2.0:  AIR STRIKES IN SYRIA, THE PROXY WAR HEATS UP

Like I said on Daily Check-In 04/09/2018, we have a Wag the Dog scenario.  However, France and Britain also took part in the strikes as well.  Let’s see if these attacks are one-off’s, or if this is the beginning of a war.

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

Sources familiar with the situation told the Wall Street Journal that the White House has been urging Trump’s allies to lash out at Rosenstein, so that if Trump moves to fire him it won’t look like an effort to interfere in the Russia investigation.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is what we call a criminal conspiracy.  No if’s, ands, or but’s about it.

 

CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA AND FACEBOOK

 

SCOOTER LIBBY PARDONED

 

GOP:  THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

Michael Cohen is one of the Deputy Finance Chairs of the Republican National Committee.  His shit was raided and seized by the FBI on Monday.  One of the things they found evidence of was Cohen setting up a hush money payment between a Playboy Model and Elliot Broidy.  Cohen facilitated a payment late last year between Broidy, a 60 year old married man, and a model that he knocked up and urged to get an abortion.  She was paid $1.6 million in quarterly payments over 2 years, starting last December.

Elliot Broidy resigned earlier today, but there are three things that make this a big story in my mind.

  1. The FBI was on this for months, and knew about this a long time ago.
  2. The fact that the Right Wing isn’t tearing their hair out about this man paying for an abortion screams of hypocrisy. The “Pro-Life Party” is suddenly silent.
  3. If the FBI was on this for months, there’s a very good chance that the money either came from, or at least passed through, the Republican Party.  That is a severe violation of probably a half a dozen campaign finance laws, money laundering, wire fraud, and bank fraud at least.

 

RNC Finance Committee Members:

  • Steve Wynn – Chair – Resigns amid sexual assault allegations
  • Michael Cohen – Deputy Chair – Under criminal investigation for bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign finance violations
  • Elliot  Broidy -Deputy Chair – Resigns for paying $1.6M to a playboy bunny to cover up an affair and under criminal investigation in Ukraine for financial crimes

 

BLUE WAVE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

#NEVERAGAIN

Too bad, I really liked the local hardware store that Ace bought out and franchised a few years ago.

SAY GOODBYE TO THE ECONOMY

 

RED STATE TEACHER STRIKES

 

CLIMATE CH..CH..CH..CHANGES

 

STORMYWATCH, FROM THE STORMCENTER 6000 METEOROPORNOLOGICAL CENTER

 

CAN WE GET BACK TO POLITICS?

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for today.  There was so much shit, I need to do a quick breakdown…

Mueller has proof that Michael Cohen was in Prague, directly on orders from Trump, to work with the Russians.

Michael Cohen organized a payoff between Elliot Broidy, who’s now under investigation in Ukraine for his ties to a Russian bank under sanctions, and a Playboy model he impregnated and urged to get an abortion.  The likelihood that this money came from the RNC is pretty damn high.

The FBI Investigation into Michael Cohen was separate from Robert Mueller’s work, but they are cooperating with each other.

Trump pardoned Scooter Libby as a “fuck you” to James Comey, whose book comes out next week.

Rosenstein knows he’s probably getting fired, and has a plan, as do thousands if not millions of Americans.

Trump is coordinating with Fox News and other Right Wing Media to create a message to push for Mueller’s and Rosenstein’s firings.

The United States, Great Britain, and France launched an air strike against Assad-held positions in Syria that are points of their chemical weapons infrastructure.

Climate change is fucking our shit up.

Kids keep finding guns school bathrooms because people are stupid.

Trump can’t win a trade war with China because a trade war is a stupid idea.

Instead, he’ll try to start a real one to distract from how much of a criminal scumbag he is.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur