Tag: Politics

Daily Check-In 04/02/2018

Monday April 1st and Easter Weekend.  And April Fool’s.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Van der Zwaan’s forfeiture of his Freedom of Information Act ability prevents him from interfering with the Mueller investigation by requesting documents from it, tipping others off to “investigative facts that are otherwise not known” and burdening the office with freedom of information tasks, the prosecutors told the judge Monday. The filing notes “the scarce resources of the special counsel’s office” and how it may face “drain” if asked to “assemble records and to help explain to others both their significance and the potential that their release could harm the ongoing investigation.”

Alex Van der Zwaan is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday around 10am EST.  He’ll be the first person to reach this stage in the Mueller Investigation.

George looks like he has a bad habit of saying things when he’s drinking.

His GoFundMe raised over half a million dollars in less than a week, far surpassing it’s goals.

Repeatedly, Roger Stone claimed that he had communicated with Julian Assange and Guccifer 2.0.  The first represents a hostile non-state intelligence service, and the second is a member of the GRU.  His best case scenario is a case of espionage against the United States.

I was very skeptical about Ted’s claims, right until Business Insider confirmed the Grand Jury subpoena.

Erik Prince met with Kirill Dmitriev.  Kirill’s wife Natalia Popova is very close to Putin’s daughter Yekaterina Tikhonova, and runs a foundation with her.

Once again, Trump cow-tows to his Russian master, and it’s the Kremlin that tells the Americans about Trump’s actions.

 

Remember, Amazon owner Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post, the leading newspaper working to expose Trump’s corruption, criminality, and treasonous and traitorous behavior.

This is how a criminal acts.

 

SINCLAIR PROPAGADANA AND ATTEMPTS AT STATE RUN MEDIA

 

 

CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA AND FACEBOOK

 

 

#NEVERAGAIN

The man who was too much of a coward to serve his country when called upon and got out of serving by shitting his pants in front of the draft board, questioned the integrity and soul of kids who saw their friends die in front of them?

By the way, there’s an easy joke about Ted Nugent fucking a teenage girl joke hanging out there, but his music is enough of a joke.

 

 

RED STATE TEACHER STRIKES

 

 

SAY GOODBYE TO THE ECONOMY

 

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS, THE “TRUMP HATES BROWN PEOPLE AND THE FUTURE” EDITION

 

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

 

STORMYWATCH, FROM THE STORMCENTER 6000 METEOROPORNOLOGICAL CENTER

In the lawsuit filed March 26 in Manhattan federal court, Jessica Denson, who oversaw phone bank and Hispanic outreach for the campaign, said she became the target of harassing remarks and behavior by a superior. She previously filed a discrimination case against Donald Trump for President Inc. in New York state court, but the Trump campaign has sought to enforce the confidentiality deal, documents show.

One thing that I hope comes out of this clusterfuck of a time line is that we get rid of Non-Disclosure Agreements and Binding Arbitration clauses in contracts.

 

CAN WE GET BACK TO POLITICS?

 

RUMOR MILL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a great write-up by John Schindler about Konstantin Kiliminik and the GRU.  They’re even scarier than I thought.

 

 

 

 

Jay McKenzie has a great series of posts going into Trump’s mob ties.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s it for today.  The writing is a little sparse today.  There were a lot of individual stories, and not enough time to properly cover them all.  Let’s see what the rest of the week holds.

I’m going to start adding some more short-form posts to fill out the new sections that I’m adding.  I’ve also been thinking about doing interviews and having the occasional guest writer.  Let’s see how that goes.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 03/30/2018

Friday, March 30th.  Good Friday, for those into that kind of thing.  For the non-religious out there, Happy “Good luck trying to get a bacon cheeseburger and not fish for lunch” day.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Yevgeny Nikulin was a hacker that was involved in many computer crimes, including a possible link to the Weiner Laptop Drama from shortly before the 2016 election.  Louise was on this guy a while back.

Why do I have a feeling that when Roger Stone goes down, he’ll try to make some type of crazy last stand that ends with suicide by cop?

This last one was in the Rumor Mill yesterday Daily Check-In 03/29/2018.  It’s being reported by multiple outlets like The Guardian, so I’m less skeptical of the story, but it’s basically reporting that Ted Malloch said he was stopped by the FBI.  There are no statements from anyone else there.  Nothing from the FBI, his family, or any other witnesses.  The only reports are from Ted and his friends, who aren’t exactly the most reputable characters.

Plus, there’s a detail I can’t shake.  Ted says the FBI confiscated his phones, but he called one of his friends during interview.  Then, they took his phones with them as evidence.

Something doesn’t add up on that.  For the FBI to confiscate his electronics, they’d need a warrant.  There’s no mention that he had a lawyer present, yet they interrogated him pretty hard.  Meanwhile, every other instance of the FBI interviewing someone in this case has them going out of their way to not do any activities that could even be slightly interpreted as improper or illegal.  When George Nader was stopped (Daily Check-In 03/06/2018), Ted’s story is pretty similar.  With George Papadopoulos, his arrest was so by-the-book that the FBI didn’t ask him any questions until after his lawyer showed up.

I’m halfway between misinformation and planted honesty.  We’ll see where this goes.

 

CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA AND FACEBOOK

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

TEACHER STRIKES IN CONSERVATIVE AMERICA

Following years of anti-union, anti-government, and anti-social policies, teachers in Kentucky, Arizona, and Oklahoma are following West Virginia’s lead with state-wide strikes.

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

STORMYWATCH, FROM THE STORMCENTER 6000 METEOROPORONOLOGICAL CENTER

 

MEDIA MATTERS, AND WHY MEDIA MATTERS

Sinclair Broadcasting is forcing local news channels to spread pro-Trump propaganda.  There is no reason to pussyfoot around this.

 

CAN WE GET BACK TO POLITICS?

 

 

RUMOR MILL: CHURCHBELLS ARE RINGING

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eric Garland posted Houston megachurch pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell insists bonds he sold are legitimate earlier today.  Aside from getting a kick out of watching one of these megachurch pastors getting busted on Good Friday, I like it because it reminds me to keep churches in the spotlight.

One of the tools used to funnel Russian money into the Republican Party in 2016 was the church system.  Just like the NRA, they were used to infiltrate the party and serve as proxies for Russian interests in the election.

Plus, I personally find the whole idea of the megachurch to be an affront to piety and humility that religion claims as its primary qualities.  Nothing says hypocrisy like telling an 80 year old woman living off of her Social Security check that she needs to give more money to a multimillionaire to buy a private plane and third summer home.

 

 

That’s it for today.  It’s a little short today.  Last night was a long one for me, and I’m working on about 3 hours of sleep.  I try not to write when I get too tired.  I make stupid mistakes, and don’t catch them until it’s too late.  Besides, my to-do list is pretty crazy.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

 

 

Daily Check-In 03/29/2018

Thursday March 29th

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION:  MUELLER DOESN’T NEED GATES FOR MANAFORT BUT FOR TRUMP; INVESTIGATING JEFF SESSIONS AT THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION

In a short succession Thursday afternoon, the three stories above dropped in rapid succession.

The first, in the order that I received the updates, was that Jeff Sessions was not going to name an Special Counselor to investigate the Special Counselor, much to the chagrin of several vocal Trump coconspirators Republican Representatives in Congress demanded it.  Attorney General Jeff Sessions will appoint the US Attorney from Utah to investigate internal procedures of the DOJ and FBI, but he said that the events in question do not meet the threshold for a Special Investigator.

As I was reading this story, I saw an alert on Twitter that Mueller had asked several witnesses before a Grand Jury about their knowledge of contacts between the Russians and Trump Campaign at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, specifically about Jeff Sessions and the Russian Ambassador, Sergei Kislyak.  This was from several weeks ago, but was just being reported now, as usual.

Finally, as I finished up that article, there was another one from CNN that tied it all together.  Mueller didn’t need to flip Gates to take down Paul Manafort.  He flipped Gates to take down the rest of the Trump Campaign.

Now, when I see 2+2, I don’t think Potato Salad, I think 4.

So, when I see three stories about Jeff Sessions, Russian contacts, and Rick Gates, I don’t think “Gee, what a coinkidink.”  I think “Damn, Gates gave Mueller enough rope to hang the Keebler Nazi.”

Rick Gates was the Deputy Campaign Chairman, and later the Chief of Staff to the head of the Trump Inaugural Committee.  He knowingly worked with Russian GRU Agent Konstanin Kilimnik (Confirmed at Person A, that’s 20 bucks for me) with Manafort during the campaign, and was involved in every major action from the beginning of the campaign to the end.  Their connections to Russian Oligarchs like Oleg Deripaska was a feature, not a bug.

I think Jeff Sessions had a clue about what Mueller was doing, too.  He’s on slippery ground, and if he made a move to try to institute a Special Counselor to investigate the Special Counselor investigating his actions, this could easily be seen as Obstruction of Justice.  The FBI hates him, the rank and file DOJ want to crucify him, the USIC has him dead to rights, and Mueller’s sending this message saying “Go ahead, let’s see how long you last.”

 

#NEVERAGAIN

Note to self:  Never pick a fight on Social Media with kids that survived a massacre.  It’s like Batman fighting Bane in the dark.  I merely adopted the Social Media.  They were born by it, bred by it.

 

STORMYWATCH, FROM THE STORMCENTER 6000 METEOROPORNOLOGICAL CENTER

Michael Cohen is a terrible lawyer.  This time, his incompetence could force Trump to testify in a deposition about Stormy Daniels.

This article breaks the point down like this…

The NDA is so horribly written, and completely one-sided, that it is likely that the whole thing is thrown out.  Not just a section or two, but the whole contract.

Further, there is an arbitration clause in the contract, but only covers disputes between Trump and Stormy, nothing involving Cohen.  Since Cohen isn’t covered by the arbitration clause, he can’t force this case in front of an arbitrator, only Trump could.  But, since Trump never signed the agreement, and the current defense Cohen is working with is that he acted completely without Trump’s knowledge, Trump can’t force this claim to arbitration either.

Also, Cohen’s excuse is a direct and gross violation of the New York State Bar Association.  Cohen is tap-dancing in the disbarment minefield.

MAGA.  Make Attorneys Get Attorneys.

Michael was the fixer. It could be anything. There were a ton of matters that took place that Michael fixed and Donald Trump wasn’t involved in every single matter,” Schwartz said. He then walked that back, saying he meant business problems in general, and suggesting that business leaders commonly have a fixer authorized to pay people off without their knowledge.

JFC.  Really?  Trump’s Lawyer’s Lawyer just implied that Cohen is Trump’s fixer (like the mob), that he operated without his knowledge and consent, and does so for other matters as well.

Wow.  This is like saying “my client couldn’t have robbed the bank because he was busy killing some people at the time of the robbery.”

 

TRUMP ORG AND CORRUPTION, FROM THE WATER IS WET DEPARTMENT

Emoluments.  This is yet another lawsuit that Trump is currently facing, this time brought by local AG’s against Trump Org and Trump for illegally accepting emoluments, or payments, from foreign governments via his hotels.

A visiting delegation from Thailand arrives in Washington, D.C.  Instead of staying at the Ritz, Hilton, or Four Seasons, they’re staying at Trump International Hotel, and scuttlebutt says it is because the White House told them to stay there.  This is the definition of corruption.

Trump and his daughter Ivanka spent hours at Trump Tower with the Russian, Igor Krutoy, who also knows attendees of a fateful meeting at the same building during the 2016 US election campaign.

Krutoy, a well-known composer in Russia, has written music for Emin Agalarov, the Russian singer whose father hosted Trump’s 2013 Miss Universe contest in Moscow. Krutoy attended the contest, where he was photographed with Trump.

Emin once named Krutoy as one of his closest friends in music. Public records show the Krutoys and the Agalarovs owned neighbouring houses in New Jersey in the 1990s, and now own condominiums in the same luxury complex in Florida. Krutoy said he considered the Agalarovs as acquaintances rather than friends.

In June 2016, the Agalarovs attended a meeting at Trump Tower with senior campaign officials that is now a flashpoint for Mueller’s investigation. Emin’s manager emailed Donald Trump Jr beforehand to say the Agalarovs would bring dirt on Hillary Clinton from the Russian government. Trump Jr responded enthusiastically.

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

Shulkin was still a corrupt POS, but this is one of those “Heel vs. Heel” battles.  I want to see them destroy each other.

COLD WAR 2.0

Good news about Yulia.  Know what’s worse than trying an obviously politically motivated assassination on foreign soil?  Fucking it up.

 

CAN WE GET BACK TO POLITICS?

Starving the Beast.  That’s what Reagan called it back in the 1980’s.  Cut taxes coming in to the government that pay for social programs like Medicare and Welfare, then push to cut those programs while funneling even more money to the rich and greedy.

 

 

 

RUMOR MILL

Take this with a lot of salt.  The only sources I could find on this story all came from the Tin Foil Hat-osphere.  Prison Planet, InfoWars, and their ilk disgust me for their lack of journalistic integrity and obvious bias, as well as their willingness to exploit their readers for their own personal gains.  If I have a story that I wrote that I don’t like the outcome or if it goes against the narrative I want to build, I’ll still write about it.  I won’t deny it’s existence and blame the Lizardmen of Mars.

 

That’s it for today.  Well, yesterday.  I’m a little late on posting.  Life happens.  This weekend, I hope to start the Gun Control series, take a look at the various lawsuits and legal problems facing Trump, and a wrestling inspired post, hopefully before Wrestlemania.

Yes, I’m a wrestling fan.  Even took part in a couple matches when I was younger.  I’ll explain that later.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daily Check-In 03/28/2018

Wednesday March 28th

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

From the BuzzFeed article…

Fourth, the lies and withholding of documents were material to the Special Counsel’s Office’s investigation. That Gates and Person A were directly communicating in September and October 2016 was pertinent to the investigation. Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agents assisting the Special Counsel’s Office assess that Person A has ties to a Russian intelligence service and had such ties in 2016. During his first interview with the Special Counsel’s Office, van der Zwaan admitted that he knew of that connection, stating that Gates told him Person A was a former Russian Intelligence Officer with the GRU.

…

Person A worked with Manafort and Gates in connection with their Ukraine lobbying work. Person A is a foreign national and was a close business colleague of Manafort and Gates. He worked in Ukraine at Manafort’s company Davis Manafort International, LLC (DMI). Up until mid-August 2016, Person A lived in Kiev and Moscow.

I’ve got $20 riding on the GRU officer being none other than Konstantin Kilimnik.

But this is a big deal.  Rick Gates KNEW he was communicating with a Russian Spy back in September of 2016, a couple months before the election.

Let me say this one more time.

The Deputy Campaign Manager for the Republican nominee to President met with a Russian Spy before the election.

George Papadopoulos met with several people in Europe, including the Defense Minister of Greece.  Remember, George was in Greece earlier in the year at the same time as Putin.

I’ve mentioned before in GTKYG-Pardon Limitations how bad of an idea this is, but it looks like we’re heading to a challenge in court.  It’s a matter of time before Trump tries to pardon his way out of this mess, and about 30 seconds before those pardons are challenged in the Supreme Court, likely by Michael Dreeben, as mentioned in The Justice League.

But this is very bad for Jon Dowd.  If he talked with Mike Flynn’s lawyer about Trump pardoning Flynn, while representing Trump, this could be a clear cut case of Obstruction of Justice against Dowd.

Dowd’s gonna need a lawyer.

MAGA.  Make Attorney’s Get Attorneys.

 

#NEVERAGAIN

I am not writing this piece to malign Nikolas Cruz any more than he already has been. I have faith that history will condemn him for his crimes. I am writing this because of the disturbing number of comments I’ve read that go something like this: Maybe if Mr. Cruz’s classmates and peers had been a little nicer to him, the shooting at Stoneman Douglas would never have occurred.

This deeply dangerous sentiment, expressed under the #WalkUpNotOut hashtag, implies that acts of school violence can be prevented if students befriend disturbed and potentially dangerous classmates. The idea that we are to blame, even implicitly, for the murders of our friends and teachers is a slap in the face to all Stoneman Douglas victims and survivors.

This piece was written by Isabelle Robinson, one of the students at Parkland, but it could just as easily have been written by any fellow student or co-worker of any mass shooter in the last generation.

There comes a point in the blame game where we, as Americans, inevitably blame the victims and survivors of these atrocities for the actions of the perpetrators.

We blame the victims for not being nicer to a sociopath or psychopath.  We blame them for not reaching out to the weird kids, or rebuffing their awkward romantic advances.  We blame them for bullying the shooters.  We blame them for not being repulsed by terrible hygiene, or offensive views.  We blame them for not going to the authorities when given a chance, and then blame them for not doing more when the authorities can’t or won’t do anything.  We blame the bullied for not standing up for themselves, then blame them again when they do.

It has to fucking stop.

First, asking kids to do what we’re unwilling or unable to do reeks of bullshit hypocrisy.

Second, unlike the image of the loner gunman that we like to embrace, many of these monsters are psychopathic bullies who get pleasure on hurting others.  They’re the ones making life miserable for others.

Third, ever notice that most mass shooters are white guys with senses of entitlement?  “She didn’t flirt back with me”, “I’m a 26 year old virgin with no friends”, “No one likes me”, “Women don’t find me attractive” are some of the justifications given by these monsters, as if the world owed them something.  The world doesn’t owe anyone anything.  No one is entitled to friends, love, or a girlfriend.  They have to earn those things, and realize that just because they’re white, it doesn’t mean that they get them for free.

Finally, know this shooter was?  He was a radicalized right-wing terrorist.  There I said it.  The Parkland Shooter was a goddamned terrorist.  No different than the Austin bomber.  They were radicalized by hate groups online and in the real world, honed their craft, and committed acts of terror.  The only difference between them and members of ISIS is the color of their skin and the color of their hats.

 

 

CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA AND FACEBOOK

I’m enjoying Tim Cook throwing shade at Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook.  Apple’s stance of privacy in the digital age is nearly the opposite of Facebook.  Apple anonymizes user data, and their devices and cloud services are more difficult to get in to than their competitors.

Full disclosure, I am neck deep in the Apple Ecosystem.  That company has probably made at least $10,000 off of my family over the last decade or so.

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

You have got to be kidding me, right?  I’m not shocked about Shulkin getting fired, that was coming after finding out about the trip to Europe.  But Trump plans to nominate the White House Doctor, Admiral Ronny Jackson?

Remember the yearly physical from Daily Check-In 01/17/2018?  Yeah, that guy.

 

STORMYWATCH, FROM THE STORMCENTER 6000 METEOROPORNOLOGICAL CENTER

 

CAN WE GET BACK TO POLITICS?

The Maryland gerrymandering case is interesting.  Maryland is gerrymandered to favor the Democrats, using the same tricks that the GOP used in other states.  The Supreme Court may be approaching a decision.  Let’s see how this goes.

 

RUMOR MILL:  FUCK JULIAN ASSANGE

Ecuador cut off Assange’s internet today and is not letting him have any visitors in response to his promoting articles from members of the Catalonian government. This pissed off some of Ecuador’s allies.

Fuck Julian Assange, Fuck Kim Dotcom, and all of their allies.  They are enemies of Democracy.

This could be another slap on the wrist for the Surprise Sex Enthusiast (Rapist), and he’ll have his access restored soon.  Then again, the embassy has had problems with Julian for a while, and they could finally be ready to kick him out.

 

That’s it for today.  It’s shortly before 11PM EST, and this is the earliest I’ve wrapped things up in a while.  I’m putting a wrap on things now, before I dive into another rabbit hole.  Last time that happened, I ended up playing a weird game of chess.

 

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur