Tag: Politics

Scandal Speed Run

One of the interesting things with the Trump Presidency is the sheer speed at which their scandals are unravelling and coming out.  Not only are they coming out in rapid fire, but they’re coming out early in the administration as well.

It’s almost like they’re doing a speed run.  How fast can they get through all of the worst scandals in history?

I wanted to compare Trump to the 7 Worst Presidential Scandals, per U.S. News, and see where The Dotard lined up, in terms of speed, scale, and overall corruption.  And, to see if there’s anything they haven’t done yet.

 

BILL CLINTON: MONICA LEWISNKY

Short Version: Bill Clinton got a blowjob from Monica Lewinsky, an intern at the White House.  Kenneth Starr, the Special Prosecutor investigating Whitewater, heard about this and investigated it.  He subpoenaed Bill Clinton, who lied under oath about getting a blowjob from Monica Lewinsky.  After several years of investigation, the only thing that Starr pulled up was a perjury charge.  Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998 along very partisan lines, but was not removed from office.

Time: The blowjob took place in the last year of Bill Clinton’s first term.  He was impeached in the second year of his second term.

Comparison:  This is a two-for.  We have Trump obstructing justice and paying off a porn star to keep her quiet during the election.  Just because of Watergate, I’ll use Stormy Daniels here.  It took a little over a year for his sex scandal to come to the foreground.

SEX SCANDAL LEVEL STARTED IN ONE YEAR.

 

RICHARD NIXON:  WATERGATE

Short Version: A bunch of crooks with ties to the CIA and the Republican Party broke into the headquarters for the Democratic Party, located in the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C.  The crooks got busted, Nixon was implicated in the cover-up, and he eventually had to resign.

Time: The break-in took place in the last year of his first term, and he left office in his second year of his second term.

Comparison: Trump has already helped with a break-in into the DNC email system, and is well on his way to an Obstruction of Justice charge, which is what took Nixon down.

BREAK-IN LEVEL STARTED BEFORE TAKING OFFICE

OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE LEVEL STARTED IN ONE WEEK

 

WARREN G. HARDING: TEAPOT DOME SCANDAL

Short Version: Harding’s Secretary of the Interior used government resources to obtain oil fields in Wyoming, then awarded them to a company in a no-bid contract that had given him bribes, loans, and payoffs.  Harding’s Interior Secretary became the first Cabinet member to be indicted and convicted while in office.

Time:  The Teapot Dome scandal started in 1922, the second year of his presidency.

Comparison:  Trump’s Cabinet is corrupt AF.  His Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, has abused travel for personal use, and likely had a no-bid contract awarded to an unqualified company to provide power restoration to Puerto Rico.

TEAPOT DOME LEVEL STARTED IN NINE MONTHS

 

U. S. GRANT: THE WHISKEY RING

Short Version: In 1875, Grant’s personal secretary was implicated in a bribery and corruption scheme where Whiskey manufacturers complained about the taxes they had to pay.  It turns out that a few of them were bribing officials at the IRS and the Treasury Department, and keeping the money for themselves.

Time:  1875 was the next to last year of Grant’s presidency.

Comparison:  This one’s hard to compare.  Not for the lack of criminality, but that it required cooperation with the government.  That being said, if we’re looking for a straight bribery charge, an emoluments violation, or his staff being involved in some shady shit, we’ve had them all.  They’re close enough, I’ll count them.

BRIBERY LEVEL STARTED IN FIRST TWO MONTHS

EMOLUMENTS LEVEL STARTED IN ONE WEEK

STAFF CORRUPTION LEVEL STARTED IN ONE WEEK

 

ANDREW JOHNSON: THE FIRST IMPEACHMENT

Short Version: Andrew Johnson was a dick who only became President because Abraham Lincoln had a bad night at the theater.  Johnson was a Right Wing Democrat answering to a Left Wing Republican Congress who was trying to bring the country back together.  They passed a law saying that Johnson couldn’t fire any Cabinet members.  Johnson said “Eat a dick” and fired the Secretary of War.  The House impeached him, and he came within 1 vote of being removed from office.

Time:  Johnson was a bit of a dick from word one, but his impeachment took place in the third year of his presidency.

Comparison:  Trump has already ignored laws passed by Congress in refusing to enact the Russian sanctions.  He hasn’t been impeached for that yet, but the first Articles of Impeachment included the sanctions in it.

JOHNSON LEVEL STARTED IN EIGHT MONTHS

 

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS:  DIDN’T WIN THE POPULAR VOTE AND A CORRUPT BARGAIN

Short Version:  The Election of 1824 was a clusterfuck.  Andrew Jackson won the popular vote and the electoral college, but did not have a majority.  That forced the House of Representatives to vote on the Presidency between the final three candidates.  The one that missed out was Henry Clay, the Speaker of the House.  Clay also hated Andrew Jackson with a passion.  Clay struck a deal with John Quincy Adams, which became known as the “Corrupt Bargain” by Jackson’s supporters.  Clay helped create a coalition that let Adams win, and Clay was named Secretary of State.  Jackson’s supporters used this to spur him on to create his own party for the 1828 election.

Time:  The Corrupt Bargain took place at the beginning of John Quincy Adam’s first and only term, and was 4 years before Jackson took office.

Comparison:  This is a very hard one to compare to, but there are two examples I can think of that directly correlate.  The first was the Mayflower Meeting, and the second being the RNC meeting in Cleveland.  In both situations, Trump’s team asked the Russians for help.  In Cleveland, the GOP Leadership was involved.  And neither of these were a last-chance scenario like the Corrupt Bargain, but were both performed earlier in the campaign.

CORRUPT BARGAIN LEVEL STARTED MONTHS BEFORE TAKING OFFICE

 

CONCLUSION

Out of the 7 worst scandals in United States Presidential History, Donald Trump has managed to have his own version of each and every one of them, and far faster than anyone else in history.  This is a level of corruption that we’ve never seen before in this country.  Hell, most banana republic dictators are less corrupt than Donald Trump.  Of course, most of them are not neck deep in Russian Mafia, or a money laundering device for the world’s most evil and corrupt organizations.

Keep in mind, we’re only 13.2 months into the four year term.  We’re just getting started with the corruption, grift, greed, and criminality of Donald Trump.  We’re going. to find out a whole hell of a lot in the next year.

Thank you, and have a good one.

Daily Check-In 02/23/2018

Friday, February 23rd.

GATES TO PLEAD GUILTY, WILL COOPERATE WITH MUELLER

I’ve talked about this rumor for a while, but if the Washington Post is reporting it, it’s happening.  He is pleading guilty to Conspiracy and Lying to the FBI.

Here’s a copy of his plea deal.

Gates, who was once the Deputy Campaign Chairman, worked with the Trump team throughout the campaign, transition, and was Chief of Staff to the Chairman of the Inaugural Committee.  He continued to visit the White House through the Summer of 2017.

Over the last couple days, there was some screwiness with his deal, his legal team, and whether he would or wouldn’t cooperate.  Manafort, by all accounts, is putting his money on receiving a pardon from President Trump.  Gates probably bet on the same hope, right until the 32 charges came in yesterday from EDVA.  Whatever deal he was fighting against yesterday looked REAALLL nice all of a sudden.

In his Lying to the FBI charge, the deal says that he lied about a meeting with Manafort, a Lobbyist, and a member of Congress.  My first guess is that it was Congressman Dana Rohrabacher of Moscow California.

Rick Gates is looking at 31 counts of white-collar crime.  There are enough charges here that if he were convicted, he would grow very old and likely die in prison.  His kids won’t know their father.  Working with Mueller is his last, best hope to avoid that.

 

MUELLER’S TEAM HAS INDICTED 19 PEOPLE ON OVER 100 CHARGES

Here’s the list as of 09:30 EST, courtesy of the Washington Post:

The campaign team

Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign chairman. 27 counts in total.

  • Conspiracy against the United States (1 count, contained in October indictment)
  • Conspiracy to launder money (1 count, October)
  • Bank fraud (4 counts, February indictment)
  • Bank fraud conspiracy (5 counts, February)
  • Subscribing to false tax returns (5 counts, February)
  • Making false statements (1 count, October)
  • Failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts (4 in October, 4 in February)
  • Unregistered agent of a foreign principal (1 count, October)
  • False FARA statements (1 count, October)

Rick Gates, former Trump campaign staffer. 31 counts in total.

  • Conspiracy against the United States (1 count, October)
  • Conspiracy to launder money (1 count, October)
  • Bank fraud (4 counts, February)
  • Bank fraud conspiracy (5 counts, February)
  • Subscribing to false tax returns (5 counts, February)
  • Assisting in preparation of false tax documents (5 counts, February)
  • Subscribing to false amended tax returns (1 count, February)
  • Making false statements (1 count, October)
  • Failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts (3 in October, 3 in February)
  • Unregistered agent of a foreign principal (1 count, October)
  • False FARA statements (1 count, October)

Michael Flynn, former campaign staffer. 1 charge to which he pleaded guilty.

  • Making false statements (1 count, December)

George Papadopoulos, former campaign adviser. 1 charge to which he pleaded guilty.

  • Making false statements (1 count, October)

The Russians

Yevgeniy Prigozhin, controlled Concord Management and Consulting. 1 count in total.

  • Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)

Mikhail Bystrov, general director of Internet Research Agency. 1 count in total.

  • Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)

Mikhail Burchik, executive director of Internet Research Agency. 1 count in total.

  • Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)

Aleksandra Krylova, director of Internet Research Agency. 1 count in total.

  • Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)

Anna Bogacheva, Internet Research Agency employee. 1 count in total.

  • Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)

Sergey Polozov, Internet Research Agency employee. 1 count in total.

  • Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)

Maria Bovda, Internet Research Agency employee. 1 count in total.

  • Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)

Robert Bovda, Internet Research Agency employee. 1 count in total.

  • Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)

Dzheykhun Aslanov, Internet Research Agency employee. 8 counts in total.

  • Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)
  • Conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud (1 count, February)
  • Aggravated identity theft (6 counts, February)

Vadim Podkopaev, Internet Research Agency employee. 1 count in total.

  • Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)

Gleb Vasilchenko, Internet Research Agency employee. 8 counts in total.

  • Conspiracy to defraud the United States. (1 count, February)
  • Conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud (1 count, February)
  • Aggravated identity theft (6 counts, February)

Irina Kaverzina, Internet Research Agency employee. 7 counts in total.

  • Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)
  • Aggravated identity theft (6 counts, February)

Vladimir Venkov, Internet Research Agency employee. 7 counts in total.

  • Conspiracy to defraud the United States (1 count, February)
  • Aggravated identity theft (6 counts, February)

The other people

Richard Pinedo, businessman who sold bank account numbers allegedly used by the Russians as part of their efforts. 1 charge to which he pleaded guilty.

  • Making false statements (1 count, December)

Alex van der Zwaan, attorney who helped develop a report benefiting Manafort’s client in Ukraine. 1 charge to which he pleaded guilty.

  • Making false statements (1 count, October)

 

Comparing that information to this chart from Daily Kos, Trump is already well ahead of every President in number of Indictments and fourth in number of convictions with 3.

Executive Branch Criminal Activities by Presidential Administration
President Party Years in

Office

 Criminal

Indictments

 Criminal

Convictions

 Prison

Sentences
Barack Obama Democratic 8 0 0 0
George W. Bush Republican 8 16 16 9
Bill Clinton Democratic 8 2 1 1
George H. W. Bush Republican 4 1 1 1
Ronald Reagan Republican 8 26 16 8
Jimmy Carter Democratic 4 1 0 0
Gerald Ford Republican 2.4 1 1 1
Richard Nixon Republican 5.6 76 55 15

 

5 NEW CHARGES FOR PAUL MANAFORT FROM DC SUPERSEDING INDICTMENT

Here it is. A couple hours after Rick Gates pleaded guilty, a superseding indictment was unsealed against Paul Manafort.

Here’s the new charges:

  • Conspiracy Against the United States
  • Conspiracy to Launder Money
  • Unregistered Agent of a Foreign Principal
  • False and Misleading FARA Statements
  • False Statements

 

MANAFORT LEFT PAPER TRAIL BECAUSE HE COULDN’T CONVERT WORD DOC TO PDF

Why is it that it’s always some tiny, stupid, insignificant little thing that ends up leading investigators to unravel a massive conspiracy?

In this case, Manafort needed help converting a Word file to a PDF.  Even though there are literally dozens of ways for someone to do this themselves, Paul either couldn’t or wouldn’t figure it out.

Manafort, who is at or near 70 years old, asked a coconspirator at Lender D (Federal Savings Bank in Chicago, IL) for him to send a file to him in a Word file so that he could doctor it.  Manfort then sent this to Rick Gates, who sent back a PDF file.  All he had to do was ask for a copy of the Word file, spend 2 minutes doing a Google search, and he could have done the work himself.  Instead, his laziness likely cost two people their freedom and is a likely catalyst for them to turn on him.

STEPHEN CALK’S WORK WITH MANAFORT BROUGHT UP IN DIVORCE FILING LAST YEAR

Speaking of Federal Savings Bank, Stephen Calk’s wife/ex-wife to be Donna knew about Paul Manafort and Stephen’s working with him.

I’m wondering how long ago someone from Mueller’s office spoke to Donna.

 

CONOR LAMB RUNNING NECK AND NECK DESPITE GETTING OUTSPENT 17-1

With redistricting coming up later this year, if Lamb can pull of the upset in PA-18, that would set it up nicely for the future.

The seat Lamb is running for is heavily gerrymandered.  It splits parts of the city and closest city suburbs and dilutes their large Democratic influence with voters three counties away in Pennsyltucky.  Pennsyltucky is the heavily rural, white, and sparsely populated areas in the state between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.  More than half of the state’s population lives in and around those two cities.

If Lamb wins PA-18 in the Special Election, he’ll go into November with a new district, a new map, and a more centralized constituency.

 

FLORIDA GOVERNOR RICK SCOTT PROPOSES TO RAISE GUN PURCHASE AGE TO 21

Republican Sen. Bill Galvano, the next Senate president from south Tampa, has been working on similar legislation that he planned to present with House and Senate leaders later Friday. Though he has been a supporter of the NRA’s legislative efforts in the past, Galvano said Thursday that the group’s opposition to raising the age for semiautomatic rifle purchases would not change his focus.

“It doesn’t complicate my efforts,” he said after a committee hearing in the Capitol. “I think the desire to act and do something meaningful right now seems to be what’s going to win the day.”

We’re finally starting to see some change.  Too bad it took yet another senseless tragedy to get this to happen.

 

ANOTHER REPORT ABOUT THE FBI INVESTIGATING THE NRA

As I’ve said before and I’ll say again, Fuck the NRA.

This is something I’ve talked about before, but this piece does add some info to the puzzle, like that the NRA spent $55 million in the 2016 campaign, and $30 million of that went to Donald Trump.  That $55 million was a record for them.

Alexander Torshin is a Russian Oligarch, a former member of their Parliament, and a Lifetime Member of the NRA.

 

RNC PAYING RENT FOR AN APARTMENT IN TRUMP TOWER

After the Republican National Committee stopped paying the legal fees for Trump’s family, they immediately started paying Trump for rent on an apartment in Trump Tower, at a rate of $37,500 per month.

Over a year, that comes out to $450,000, being paid to Trump’s company.  Smells pretty rotten.

 

TRUMP SAYS KELLY WILL DECIDE WHAT HAPPENS WITH KUSHNER’S CLEARANCE

This story came out this morning.  For the last, well, ever, we’ve been asking how in the Crystal Pepsi Flavored Fuck does Jared Kushner still have a Top Secret clearance?

Remember last week or two weeks ago when John Kelly said that all Interim Security Clearances would be cancelled by today?  And how Jared’s camp in the White House felt that this was an attack directed at him?

Well…

 

TOP JUSTICE DEPT. OFFICIAL ALERTED WHITE HOUSE 2 WEEKS AGO TO ONGOING ISSUES IN KUSHNER’S SECURITY CLEARANCE

Two weeks ago, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein informed the White House that there was a “significant information requiring additional investigation would further delay the security clearance process of senior adviser Jared Kushner, according to three people familiar with the discussion.”

This came directly from Rod.  You know, the guy that Bob Mueller reports to for the Russian Investigation?  Yeah, that guy.

What happened two weeks ago?

If I could make that last one a big, flashing, obnoxious blinking link, I would.

Two weeks ago, Steve Bannon spent half a week interviewing with Robert Mueller and his team.  He told them EVERYTHING.  He told them about all of the crazy shit that Jared and Ivanka pulled in the White House.  He told Mueller about Kushner’s debts, his habits, his coconspirators, and why he’s accessing so much classified intel.

I finished listening to “Fire & Fury” yesterday.  I’ll do a review on it soon, but two things stand out about Steve Bannon; he knows a lot of shit and is a vindictive son of a bitch.

There was a 3-way battle in the White House for who would be the real power behind Donald Trump.  Steve Bannon represented the Nationalists, Reince Priebus represented the Republican Party, and Jared Kushner represented… his own self-interests.  They all schemed against each other, but eventually Reince and Bannon teamed up against Jarvanka (Jared-Ivanka).  Problem was, Trump would not let his kids get fired.  The kids were behind firing Comey, the Trump Jr. statement about the June 9th meeting, and the horrendous idea of letting Trump interview Maggie Haberman from the New York Times where he pulled that “red line” bullshit.

Bannon spoke to the author a lot about Kushner, Ivanka, and Hope Hicks.  He described Kushner’s very close ties to Israel, money laundering through diamonds, and how screwed his family is on 666 Fifth Avenue.  (If that building sounds familiar, I mentioned it on Daily Check-In 10/30/2017.)

If Bannon told this much to a journalist, just imagine what he told to Robert Mueller.

So, what conclusion am I drawing from this?

Steve Bannon told Robert Mueller some shit about Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump that strongly implies that they should never, EEVER, be allowed anywhere near classified intel.  Mueller told Rosenstein, and Rosenstein told the White House.

Jared’s gonna have a very rough year.

 

RUMOR MILL: CALLS FOR UNITY AND THE ONCOMING STORM

This article is already pretty long, and with all the news today, there were two main messages today.

We need to come together as Americans and lovers of Freedom, and resist the calls for divisiveness, since they’re likely coming from our enemies.

A lot of bad people are going to have a very bad time soon.  Things are speeding up.

 

That’s it for today.  CNN has a graphical page describing all of the different lawyers on The Justice League.  I think I might update my page with any missing attorneys.  I like CNN’s look.  All I want to say is…

I DID IT FIRST!

Ok, I’m done being petty.  I’ll update my version with the new information soon.

I’ll see you next time.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 02/22/2018

Thursday, February 22nd.  I’m spending most of this time talking about the first story, so the rest will get short write-ups today.

MUELLER UNSEALS 32 INDICTMENTS AGAINST MANAFORT, GATES

Jesus Fucking Christ.  A superseding indictment from Eastern District of Virginia containing 32 indictments against both Paul Manafort and Rick Gates.

According to the indictment, they laundered $75 million, committed a fuck ton of bank and mortgage fraud, and a shitload of tax evasion.

Here’s a PDF of the indictment.

It’s a pretty long list, so I’ll see you in a couple screens.

Count Charge Defendant
1 Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns (2010) (26 U.S.C. §7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2) Manafort
2 Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns (2011) (26 U.S.C. §7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2) Manafort
3 Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns (2012) (26 U.S.C. §7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2) Manafort
4 Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns (2013) (26 U.S.C. §7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2) Manafort
5 Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns (2014) (26 U.S.C. §7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2) Manafort
6 Assisting in the Preparation of False United States Individual Income (2010) (26 U.S.C. §7206 (2)) Gates
7 Assisting in the Preparation of False United States Individual Income (2011) (26 U.S.C. §7206 (2)) Gates
8 Assisting in the Preparation of False United States Individual Income (2012) (26 U.S.C. §7206 (2)) Gates
9 Assisting in the Preparation of False United States Individual Income (2013) (26 U.S.C. §7206 (2)) Gates
10 Assisting in the Preparation of False United States Individual Income (2014) (26 U.S.C. §7206 (2)) Gates
11 Failure To File Reports Of Foreign Bank And Financial Accounts (2011) (31 U.S.C. §5314 and §5322(a); 18 U.S.C. §2) Manafort
12 Failure To File Reports Of Foreign Bank And Financial Accounts (2012) (31 U.S.C. §5314 and §5322(a); 18 U.S.C. §2) Manafort
13 Failure To File Reports Of Foreign Bank And Financial Accounts (2013) (31 U.S.C. §5314 and §5322(a); 18 U.S.C. §2) Manafort
14 Failure To File Reports Of Foreign Bank And Financial Accounts (2014) (31 U.S.C. §5314 and §5322(a); 18 U.S.C. §2) Manafort
15 Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns (2010) (26 U.S.C. § 7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2) Gates
16 Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns (2011) (26 U.S.C. § 7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2) Gates
17 Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns (2012) (26 U.S.C. § 7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2) Gates
18 Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns (2013) (26 U.S.C. § 7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2) Gates
19 Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns (2014) (26 U.S.C. § 7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2) Gates
20 Subscribing to a False Amended United States Individual Income Tax Return (2013) (26 U.S.C. §7206(1); 18 U.S.C. §2) Gates
21 Failure To File Reports Of Foreign Bank And Financial Accounts (2011) (31 U.S.C. §5314 and §5322(a); 18 U.S.C. § 2) Gates
22 Failure To File Reports Of Foreign Bank And Financial Accounts (2012) (31 U.S.C. §5314 and §5322(a); 18 U.S.C. § 2) Gates
23 Failure To File Reports Of Foreign Bank And Financial Accounts (2013) (31 U.S.C. §5314 and §5322(a); 18 U.S.C. § 2) Gates
24 Bank Fraud Conspiracy (Lender B/$3.4 million loan) (18 U.S.C. §1349) Manafort Gates
25 Bank Fraud (Lender B/$3.4 million loan) (18 U.S.C. §§1344, 2) Manafort Gates
26 Bank Fraud Conspiracy (Lender C/$1 million loan) (18 U.S.C. §1349) Manafort Gates
27 Bank Fraud (Lender C/$1 million loan) (18 U.S.C. §1344, 2) Manafort Gates
28 Bank Fraud Conspiracy (Lender B/$5.5 million loan) (18 U.S.C. §1349) Manafort Gates
29 Bank Fraud Conspiracy (Lender D/$9.5 million loan) (18 U.S.C. §1349) Manafort Gates
30 Bank Fraud (Lender D/$9.5 million loan) (18 U.S.C. §§1344, 2) Manafort Gates
31 Bank Fraud Conspiracy (Lender D/$6.5 million loan) (18 U.S.C. §1349) Manafort Gates
32 Bank Fraud (Lender D/$6.5 million loan) (18 U.S.C. §§1344, 2) Manafort Gates

This all started back in Ukraine.  They stole a bunch of money while Yakunovich was President, until about 2015.  From 2015 until January 2017, they allegedly played a shell game with multiple banks to try to drum up some cash to keep them running until their next scheme takes off.  They’re lying to banks, altering profit & loss sheets, lied about their stated incomes, lied about rental properties, and lied about all of this on state, local, and federal taxes.

Notice the dates, 2015 to 2017.  This overlaps their time on the Trump Campaign.

I can’t get a credit card increase for $500 without 38 references, and these pricks got millions of loans in a few months.

By the way, Lender D is likely Federal Savings Bank from Chicago, Illinois.  I talked about Stephen Calk yesterday in Daily Check-In 02/21/2018.  He gave these loans to Manafort in a Quid Pro Quo for a position in the White House, likely the Secretary of the Army.  Reportedly, him or someone in his bank is working with Mueller.

But, now the $64,000 question.  If Gates flipped, why’s he still getting indicted?

There was some confusion this afternoon about his legal representation.  Looks like Tom Green is still his attorney.  No, not the Tom Green that had a TV show back on MTV from the late 90’s who had testicular cancer, but the Tom Green who was a lawyer during Watergate.

There’s two hypotheses about this.  First, he’s not flipping on Manafort, or he doesn’t have enough new evidence.  Second, these indictments include enough criminal activity by both of them together, and they were indicted together.

Either way, this sends a message to Paul Manfort.  Deliver Donald Trump or die in prison.

 

FIRST NATIONAL BANK TO END THEIR NRA VISA CARD

The boycott of the NRA begins.

Time to add Enterprise Holdings to that list.  They own Enterprise, National, and Alamo rental car companies.

 

NRA AT CPAC CONFERENCE IS AN EMBARRASSMENT TO EVERYTHING

Wayne LaPierre went off on everything from blacks to socialism to video games, and blamed all of them for mass shootings.

You know, it’s everyone else’s fault, but his.

Fuck him.

 

TRUMP CRIES ‘FAKE NEWS’ ON CNN AND NBC SAYING HE’D ARM TEACHERS, THEN SAYS ARMING TEACHERS WOULD ‘SOLVE THE PROBLEM INSTANTLY’

The only reason I’m mentioning a Trump tweet is to illustrate his inability to keep a coherent thought for more than 30 seconds.  I’ll address the stupidity of arming teachers in the Rumor Mill section.

 

MISSIOURI GOVERNOR TAKEN INTO CUSTODY

Republican Governor of Missouri Eric Greitens was indicted and arrested on felony invasion of privacy.  He allegedly took pictures of his mistress without her permission as she was bound, gagged, and semi-naked on her bed, then threatened to blackmail her with them if she spoke out about the affair.

 

TRUMP LEGAL FUND RECIPIENTS UNCLEAR; FLYNN SAYS NO THANKS

This fund is supposed to be for people around Trump that can’t afford their own legal bills, like low-level staffers.

There was an argument making the rounds of the Fringe RWM that the Government doesn’t have a case against Flynn and he should fight it.  Flynn said “No Thanks.”

 

RUSSIAN OPPOSITION LEADER ALEXEI NAVALNY DETAINED IN MOSCOW, AGAIN

Once again, this shows how weak Putin really is.  Nalvany is protesting the sham practice known as the 2018 Russian Presidential Election.

 

PUTIN ALLY SAID TO BE IN TOUCH WITH KREMLIN, ASSAD BEFORE HIS MERCENARIES ATTACKED U.S. TROOPS

In intercepted communications in late January, the oligarch, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, told a senior Syrian official that he had “secured permission” from an unspecified Russian minister to move forward with a “fast and strong” initiative that would take place in early February.

Yevgeniy was indicted last week as the Oligarch in charge of the IRA.  His forces attacked U.S. troops in Syria, but were routed when the Americans attacked them from the air.

Yes, Russian mercenaries that report to ‘Putin’s Chef’ attacked American troops.

 

GUILTY PLEA DOESN’T PROHIBIT CONSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGE TO CONVICTIONS, SUPREME COURT RULES

This has nothing to do with Russia so far, but I thought it was an interesting ruling.

 

RUMOR MILL:  TEACHERS WITH GUNS AND MANAFORT’S CONNECTIONS

One of the stupidest things I’ve heard come from the NRA “enthusiasts” is that the solution to gun violence and mass shootings is if more “good guys” were armed.  Their thinking, if you can call it that, is that more armed people will offset and outshoot the bad people with guns.  Their recommendation to stop school shootings is to arm teachers.

Outside of a bad Hollywood movie, this is by far the dumbest, least thought out, and wildly horrible ideas since… well, I one time heard of Orange Juice and Toothpaste flavored potato chips.

Let’s talk first about the realities of gunfights.

Trained professionals who spend years perfecting the art of shooting are not very accurate in live fire situations.  The NYPD has an 18% accuracy rate.  Soldiers are about the same rate.  That means, even in a great situation, 4 out of every 5 bullets will miss its target.  In a shooting range, that miss is going to hit a wall, or a dirt mound.  In a school, that bullet is flying into a kid.

Next, let’s think about who teachers are.  They are overworked, underpaid, and stressed out.  In a lot of schools, they move from class to class, and that’s most of their exercise all day.  So, on a good day, their nerves are only slightly frayed.  Let’s throw guns into that mix, and students who know that they can beat up a teacher to steal their gun, or take it out of an unlocked drawer.

Also, who the fuck’s gonna pay for this?  We don’t pay the teachers enough as it is, and a lot of schools have problems paying for essential supplies like pencils and staplers.  Who’s gonna pay for range time and ammo?

Finally, teachers know their students.  Do you know who the most likely shooters are in a school?  Angry boy students.  Those boys are either current or former students.  This idea of arming teachers implies that they’ll have to shoot and kill people they know.  Imagine, for a moment, the kind of mindfuck that puts a person through.

Soldiers train to kill by dehumanizing their enemies.  It’s the only way they can get through their tour of duties.  Listen to some veterans talk about being in combat, and if they describe fighting at all, they’ll use some pretty denigrating and racist terms to describe who they fought and what they did.  Are they racists?  No, not really.  This is the only way they can sleep at night without ending up a sobbing pile on the floor.

Law Enforcement Officers who fire at and kill people in the line of duty have to go through counseling for the rest of their careers just to cope with what they did.  Often times, the dehumanizing traits occur.

Think about that, then think about the people who say that teachers should train with guns, just in case they need to be ready to kill one of their students, a kid they spend months teaching and mentoring.

I wasn’t the only person who thinks that arming teachers is a terrible idea.  There are literally dozens hundreds thousands millions of us on Twitter who feel the same way.

Finally, Countercheckist has been rather critical of Bernie Sanders recently.  Okay, ever since I started following him.  He was one of the first to point out that the same bots that were pushing Trump’s message were also pushing Bernie’s message, and they both seemed to have the same reaction to tales of Russian interference.  They blamed Obama.

He’s also shown over time how well connected Paul Manfort is to every single shady mutha fucka that does shady shit.  At this point, I’m half expecting to find out that my elementary school bullies were funded by Paul Manafort.

In a tweet earlier today, Countercheckist alluded to ties between Paul and Bernie.  I don’t know how, and as much as I’d like to say it ain’t so, at this point I wouldn’t be surprised.

 

That’s it for today.  Keep in mind, it’s not even Friday, and we’ve had 5 days of court activity from Robert Mueller in a row.  Manafort is Manafucked.

I have to do the math on this, but there have been over 100 criminal charges filed on 19 people from the Special Counselor’s Office.

And we’re just warming up.

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 02/21/2018

Wednesday, February 21.

NEW SEALED CHARGES FILED BY MUELLER

For the third court day in a row, Special Counselor Robert Mueller and his team have filed new charges in their investigation.  This time, I have no clue what the charges are.  No one outside of Mueller’s team and the clerk have a clue.  And possibly Rick Gates.

Odds are they’re additional charges against Paul Manafort for bank fraud.  The details about that in 3, 2, 1…

 

STEPHEN CALK, FEDERAL SAVINGS BANK OF CHICAGO, GAVE PAUL MANAFORT MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN LOANS IN EXCHANGE FOR WHITE HOUSE POSITION

Yes, Mueller is very interested.

The day that Paul Manafort was fired from the Trump Campaign, he started a company named Sunbreeze LLC.  That company then took out a loan against one of his homes.  By the end of 2016, Paul had taken out $16 million in loans, all of them signed off on by Stephen Calk.

So, who is Stephen Calk?  He was an economic advisor to the Trump Transition Team, and a manager at Federal Savings Bank in Chicago, Illinois.  FSB is a smaller bank that usually offers mortgages to veterans.

And he approved loans that totaled more than 25% of his bank’s assets in mortgages to one person.

Why would he approve such a risk for his bank, over the objections of his staff?  He reportedly did this for a position in the White House.

This is a simple and elegant solution to a weird problem.  How was a little bank in Chicago wrapped up in this mess?  Turns out, Manafort played on his desire for power and/or service.

I like simple and elegant solutions.

 

STUDENTS PROTEST AROUND THE NATION

All across the nations, students left class today to protest against the inaction of our leadership in this country.

They’re taking the lead.  I like it.

These children grew up in a world after 9/11, where the U.S. has been at war their whole lives.  They grew up on Harry Potter and Hunger Games and Marvel movies believing that one person can make a difference, and now they’re facing down the inept government.

They are an entire generation of Potter’s and Everdeen’s.  They are not going away.

 

EX-WORKERS AT IRA SAY MUELLER INDICTMENTS ARE TRUE

Multiple Russians have gone on the record describing the size and scope of the Internet Research Agency, and the accuracy of Mueller’s indictments.

They are spot on.

It’s almost like someone had high level intelligence and access to the IRA.

 

KEITH SCHILLER PAID $15K PER MONTH FROM GOP SLUSH FUND

Trump’s former body guard Keith Schiller is getting paid $15k a month by the GOP as a “Security Consultant” for the 2020 campaign.

That’s $180,000 a year.

Keith has been by Trump’s side since the 1990’s, and has often been the one to do Trump’s dirty work, like organizing hookers, threatening litigants, or harassing journalists.

Keith was involved in James Comey’s firing, personally delivering the termination letter to his office in D.C.  Of course, Comey was visiting the L.A. field office.  Rumor has it that Schiller tried to take Comey’s office computer.

 

DEVIN NUNES ASKED RUSSIAN BOTS TO HELP MAKE AN ARTICLE DISCREDITING THE RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ‘GO VIRAL’

I covered this before, but Dipshit Cowpoke Devin Nunes actively engaged trolls and bots to push the #Releasethememo hashtag on Twitter.

This doesn’t look good for the head of the House Intelligence Committee.

He’s one of the few people in the world who should have known the scope and extent of Russian activity on Twitter.  The Intelligence Community has been on this for a while.  Yet, he still engaged with them.

I can only think of three explanations.  Either he didn’t know the extent of their activities, he ignored the information, or he was counting on their actions.  None of them look good for a member of the GOP Leadership Committee.

 

RUMOR MILL: THE GREAT BOT PURGE OF FEBRUARY 2018

A funny thing happened on Twitter over the last 24 hours.  They decided to purge another set of users that were associated with specific Russian IP addresses which were traced back to Russian Bot and Troll activity.

Alright, real quick about IP addresses…

An IP address, or Internet Protocol address, is a numeric value that corresponds to a specific internet connection.  Each and every device on the internet uses them to connect to each other.  It makes up the backbone of how the internet works.  It’s how you can make a request on a laptop in your house to a website halfway across the world, and have it end up on your laptop, and not your neighbor’s computer.

We generally use IPv4, which uses a format of xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx, where the numbers range from 0-255.  Those are the values that a byte can produce.  256 values, or 2^8th power, for each group (called an octet), and four octets.

One thing with IP’s is that they’re region specific.  IP’s in the United States start with 10.  Asia in the 110’s, Latin America in 180’s.  Russia’s in the 80’s and 90’s.  These IP addresses are easy to find and trace.

What Twitter did was trace back a large number of troll accounts to a specific set of IP’s, and blocked them.

5,000 accounts and IP’s were blocked.  They were controlling millions of bots.  Those bots make up a lot of followers for people like Trump or the Alt-Right. Many members of the GOP lost thousands, if not millions of followers.

I only lost 4 followers this time.  Most of the robots following me are good old ‘Merican Porn Bots.

Of course, that means I might be on their radar.  If anything, I’m a tiny blip.  Still, we are in an information war, and information is power.

 

That’s it for today.  I do have a correction to make, though I’m not sure if I said it here.

Alex Vad Der Zwaan pleaded guilty yesterday, and I assumed that he was cooperating with Mueller.  According to the court transcripts, he did not enter into a cooperating agreement.  That doesn’t he’s not giving them information, but he’s either not doing it willingly, or there is no formal agreement.  He could also be keeping quiet.

At some point in the last 24 hours, I said he was cooperating.  My bad.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur