Daily Check-In 02/20/2018

Tuesday February 20th, and a little of what happened over President’s Day weekend.

RICK GATES TO PLEAD GUILTY, COOPERATE WITH MUELLER

This has been covered a few times over the past week or two, but this, combined with the next two stories, is confirmation that Rick Gates flipped like a gymnast.  Or one of those snowboarders.

Part of his plea deal is that he has to tell Mueller EVERYTHING.

 

MANAFORT TO HAVE BAIL REVOKED, NEW BANK FRAUD INDICTMENTS ADDED

One of the things that it looks like Gates told Mueller was about his boss, Paul Manafort.

Manafort is being investigated for even more money laundering, bank fraud, mortgage fraud, and tax evasion.

It looks like Gates gave Mueller proof that Manafort used doctored balance sheets from some of his companies to acquire a mortgage for his home in Fairfax, VA.  It’s the same house he put up for bail.

Uh oh.

 

ALEX VAN DER ZWAAN TO PLEAD GUILTY TO LYING TO THE FBI

Alex Van Der Zwaan, a Dutch lawyer who formerly worked with Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.  Up until a few weeks ago, Alex was Rick Gates’s attorney.  Alex was busted for lying about a conversation he had with Rick Gates and “Person A” about a Ukrainian case he worked on a few years ago about trying to whitewash corruption.  Alex said it didn’t happen, then deleted the emails and a recording of the phone conversation.  Alex is highly motivated to cooperate, as his wife is pregnant.  His father-in-law is German Khan, founder of Alfa Group/Alfa Bank.

So, let’s break that down.

First, Mueller got Gates to turn on his lawyer.  That’s just straight up gansta.

Next, Alex was a lawyer for Skadden, a blue chip law firm that is normally very cautious about who they take on as a client, but worked with Paul Manafort on preparing a report to justify the prosecution and jailing of Yulia Tymoshenko.  Tymoshenko was the Prime Minister in Ukraine who ran against Viktor Yanukovich, who was Paul Manafort’s client. This ties back to Ukraine.

Alfa Group has retained Skadden for a few years, and it appears that Alex Van Der Zwaan worked on their account.  Another employee of Skadden was Andrea Manafort Shand.  If that name looks familiar, it’s Paul’s daughter.

Finally, we have a direct connection to Alfa Bank.  Remember the weird network connections between a server in Alfa Bank and Trump Tower?  No, okay, quick recap…

Tea Pain broke down the connections a while back but the short, short version is there was a server in Trump Tower that only communicated with two other IP Addresses.  Those IP’s are associated with a server at Spectrum Health (a health care company owned by the DeVos family) and a server located in Alfa Bank.  Here’s a copy of the network traffic between the Alfa Server and Trump Tower server.  Reddit user /u/RyanClinton2017 put together a sobering timeline

  • The Mayflower hotel meeting was held on April 27, 2016.
  • The first traffic seen between Alfa and Trump servers was seen on May 6, 2016.
  • It started out low and slow, see graph here.
  • The first uptick of traffic is seen on June 2, 2016, the very next day Goldstein sends an email to Don Jr. about Russians having dirt on Hillary.
  • On June 9, 2016 Don Jr, Manafort and Kushner meet with the Russians at Trump Tower.
  • On June 10, 2016 another uptick as seen in the graph.
  • On June 18, 2016 Spectrum joins in and traffic increases and continues to increase through the election.

Now that we’ve built that back up, let’s talk about Alex.  Alex is a newlywed to Eva Khan, daughter of German Khan.  He’s the founder of Alfa Group/Alfa Bank, and is mentioned on page 25 of The Steele Dossier.   He’s very close to Putin, and may be one of the few Oligarchs that can call on more power than Putin.

So, not only is Alex Van Der Zwaan the son-in-law of German Khan (pronounced Herman), but Alex is also the father of his grandchild.

Eva is pregnant, and Alex doesn’t want to miss his child’s birth in prison.  The only way he doesn’t miss that is by cooperating, and he can deliver the Skadden law firm, more of Manafort’s associates, the Americans that helped Alfa Group, and possibly even German Khan himself.

 

STUDENTS TAKING THE LEAD IN FIGHT FOR GUN CONTROL

This is what we need.  The next generation grabbing this subject and taking their leadership to task.

March For Our Lives is scheduled for March 24th.

 

NETENYAHU:  AIDE TRIED TO BRIBE JUDGES WIFECOMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR TO TESTIFY AGAINST HIM

Benjamin “Bibi” Netenyahu, the embattled Israeli Prime Minister, is not having a good month.

Good.

Bibi was one of the corrupt politicians that benefited from the scourge of vice and corruption around the world that used the Trump’s and Kushner’s, among others, to launder their money.  Bibi looked the other way as Israelis broke the law all over the world.

He might be the first world leader to go down, but he won’t be the last.

 

PENNSYLVANIA GETS A NEW CONGRESSIONAL MAP

Here’s the new map.

NewPA

Compare it to the old map.

OldPA

There’s a special election in March for Tim Murphy’s old district.  It’s the middle-red one in the bottom left corner.

 

BANNON SOLD STAKE IN CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA WHILE IN WHITE HOUSE

Not that this is any surprise, but his ethics finding showed that he didn’t sell his ownership stake in CA until April.  This also proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Steve Bannon had his hands in Cambridge Analytica.

 

DONNIE JR., A TRIP TO INDIA, AND OPEN CORRUPTION

Donnie Jr. is visiting India, and is looking to make “deals” while over there.  He’s selling “access” to himself and the White House, as well as apartments.

I’m not sure what I’m more upset about, his brazen lack of decorum to at least hide his corruption, or his blatant stupidity.

 

MUELLER COMING FOR KUSHNER

Anyone who’s been reading this site for a while knows that Mueller’s coming for Kushner.  He’s had Kushner in his sights for a long time, and has him dead to rights on everything from perjury to espionage.  We’re left with two big questions.

When, and what for first?

The “when” will likely happen before the Summer begins, if not much sooner.  I think he’ll be the first family member indicted.  It’ll send a powerful message that Mueller’s coming for the family, while at the same time giving the Redcaps a chance to say “He’s not a Trump, he’s a Kushner.”  An hour later, Donnie Jr. will be indicted.

What for first is a good question.  There’s a lot that Mueller can tag him for, but as long as Trump’s in the White House, he has to tread carefully at first.  I’m not worried about Trump trying to pardon Kushner, so much as expecting him to try, and figuring that Mueller gameplanned for that contingency.  But the first crime should be big enough to establish that he’s a criminal, but not directly tied to Russia.

If I had to put money on it, he will be indicted for Obstruction of Justice.

 

RUMOR MILL:  WHO IS PERSON A?

in or about September 2016, he spoke with both Gates and Person A regarding the Report, and surreptitiously recorded the calls

There’s a couple theories floating around who Person A is from Alex’s indictment.

The first, and most obvious, is Paul Manafort.

The next is a known intermediary representing Manafort, possibly his daughter.

The third is a Ukrainian national.  While that could be anyone unknown at this point, one name I heard floating around is Konstantin Kilimnik.  Konstantin was Manafort’s man in Kiev, and has a background in Russian Intelligence.

There are few people who know.  Mueller, Gates, Van Der Zwaan, and whomever Person A is.  They know who they are, and other people know.

Not only that, but Mueller knows who they are, and sure as hell has that recording.  They caught Alex trying to delete that recording AFTER they interviewed him in November 2017.  Damn straight he was under surveillance.

 

That’s it for today.  Things are shaping up quick with Russia.  I did not talk about Trump’s tweets, because they are almost always distraction.  But, since he spewed a bunch of shit on Twitter, here’s a very brief recap…

He attacked everyone from the FBI to Mueller to Adam Schiff to the kids in Parkland, but not once did Trump attack Putin or Russia.  If he wasn’t a Russian Agent, it would seem weird AF.

Expect things to speed up from here on out on the indictment front.  There are at least three cooperating witnesses, if not more.  George Papadopoulos, Mike Flynn, Richard Pinedo, and Alex Van Der Zwaan have all pleaded guilty so far, with Rick Gates on deck.  Each and every one of their deals depend on them helping Mueller, or facing VERY long prison terms.  They stay out of jail by flipping on bigger fish.  Pretty soon, we’ll be dining on swordfish.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

No One Plans The Cover-Up

“The Cover-up is Worse than the Crime.”

We’ve all heard that cliche at least once in our lives.  It’s always comes after someone gets caught after committing a crime, and they seemingly got away with it.

And it’s complete and total horseshit.

Lying to the cops isn’t worse than murder, or rape, or robbery, or espionage.  Not even close.  Not on any possible metric.

So, why do we hear this cliche each time someone gets caught after the crime?  Why does someone always mutter this cliche each and every time?

Because the cover-up gets little to no planning ahead of the actual crime.  The cover-up is an afterthought.  The original crime gets all of the planning, but getting away with it is merely an afterthought.

Think back to every heist movie and television series that has come out in the last 20-30 years.  They mostly follow the same pattern…

  • Normal person facing extraordinary stress makes choice to commit a crime to get out of their problems.
  • Every detail of the crime is planned, from the tiniest detail to the second by second execution of the crime itself.
  • Person performs the crime, but something goes wrong after the crime.  Usually, a coconspirator does something stupid.
  • Crazy things happen because they didn’t plan getting away with the crime.
  • The better movies have the person getting caught, or losing more than they gained.  The bad ones have the person living happily ever after.

Every fucking time.  EVERY. FUCKING. TIME.  Now, what do bad movie tropes have to do with Trump-Russia?  Why does it feel like we’re in the middle of a heist movie?

Because like every heist movie, the criminals didn’t plan the getaway.  They’re winging it.  They didn’t think they would win in the first place, so why plan on getting away with it?  The bad guys planned on losing the election and creating a media outlet to spread their message afterward.  Now, they have to govern, and they’re winging it.

Winging it is how they get caught.

So, it’s not that the cover-up is worse than the crime, but the execution of the cover-up is worse than the execution of the crime.

Daily Check-in 02/16/2018

Friday, February 16, 2018.

13 RUSSIANS, 3 COMPANIES INDICTED BY SPECIAL COUNSELOR MUELLER

Special Counselor Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russians and 3 Russian entities for their actions in to influence the 2016 Presidential Election.

This indictment lays out the who, how, where, what, when, and why of the Russian Influence Operation.  It describes how they started this op back in 2014, which coincides with the Ukrainian Revolution.

The Russians used stolen identities to bypass security measures in PayPal, and used those accounts to pay for advertisements on Facebook and other social media sites.  They also paid for expenses for the Trump Campaign, even at low-level like parades.

Here are some excerpts from the indictments.  They can be found Here, at justice.gov.

Defendants’ operations included supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump (“Trump Campaign”) and disparaging Hillary Clinton. Defendants made various expenditures to carry out those activities, including buying political advertisements on social media in the names of U.S. persons and entities. Defendants also staged political rallies inside the United States, and while posing as U.S. grassroots entities and U.S. persons, and without revealing their Russian identities and ORGANIZATION affiliation, solicited and compensated real U.S. persons to promote or disparage candidates. Some Defendants, posing as U.S. persons and without revealing their Russian association, communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities.

There has been a lot of talk about the Russians organizing opposing rallies, and using friendly sources in the U.S. as feet on the ground.  This confirms it.

In order to carry out their activities to interfere in U.S. political and electoral processes without detection of their Russian affiliation, Defendants conspired to obstruct the lawful functions of the United States government through fraud and deceit, including by making expenditures in connection with the 2016 U.S. presidential election without proper regulatory disclosure; failing to register as foreign agents carrying out political activities within the United States; and obtaining visas through false and fraudulent statements.

So, we have Russians giving money to the Trump Campaign, and several FARA violations as well.  Not to mention, lying on an entry visa.

Defendants and their co-conspirators used their fictitious online personas to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election. They engaged in operations primarily intended to communicate derogatory information about Hillary Clinton, to denigrate other candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and to support Bernie Sanders and then-candidate Donald Trump.

Yes.  Attack everyone except Trump. and Bernie.  I mentioned in Trump vs. Bernie how this was Putin’s goal for the U.S. Presidential Election.

On or about February 10, 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators internally circulated an outline of themes for future content to be posted to ORGANIZATION-controlled social media accounts. Specialists were instructed to post content that focused on “politics in the USA” and to “use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump–we support them).”

That quote is interesting.  That sounds like a direct quote from an internal email or some other type of surveillance.  Remember, The Dutch Had Eyes on Cozy Bear.

 From at least April 2016 through November 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators, while concealing their Russian identities and ORGANIZATION affiliation through false personas, began to produce, purchase, and post advertisements on U.S. social media and other online sites expressly advocating for the election of then-candidate Trump or expressly opposing Clinton. Defendants and their co-conspirators did not report their expenditures to the Federal Election Commission, or register as foreign agents with the U.S. Department of Justice. The political advertisements included the following:

  • April 6, 2016 “You know, a great number of black people support us saying that #HillaryClintonlsNotMyPresident”
  • April 7, 2016 “I say no to Hillary Clinton / I say no to manipulation”
  • April 19, 2016 “JOIN our #HillaryClintonForPrison2016”
  • May 10, 2016 “Donald wants to defeat terrorism … Hillary wants to sponsor it”
  • May 19, 2016 “Vote Republican, vote Trump, and support the Second Amendment!”
  • May 24, 2016 “Hillary Clinton Doesn’t Deserve the Black Vote”
  • June 7, 2016 “Trump is our only hope for a better future!”
  • June 30, 2016 “#Never Hillary #Hillary F orPrison #Hillary4 Prison #HillaryForPrison2016 #Trump2016 #Trump #Trump4President”
  • July 20, 2016 “Ohio Wants Hillary 4 Prison”
  • August 4, 2016 “Hillary Clinton has already committed voter fraud during the Democrat Iowa Caucus.”
  • August 10, 2016 “We cannot trust Hillary to take care of our veterans!”
  • October 14, 2016 “Among all the candidates Donald Trump is the one and only who can defend the police from terrorists.”
  • October 19, 2016 “Hillary is a Satan, and her crimes and lies had proved just how evil she is.”

I have personally seen several of those ads on Facebook.  Plus, this mentions that coconspirators helped pay for these ads.  The Russians had help.

To pay for the political advertisements, Defendants and their co-conspirators established various Russian bank accounts and credit cards, often registered in the names of fictitious U.S. personas created and used by the ORGANIZATION on social media. Defendants and their coconspirators also paid for other political advertisements using PayPal accounts.

PayPal.  This is the first time I’ve talked about PayPal, but it won’t be the last.  EBay announced that they’ll be cutting ties with PayPal in 2020.  Not only that, but PayPal co-founder and Trump enabler Peter Theil is leaving Silicon Valley.

Beginning in at least 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators used, without lawful authority, the social security numbers, home addresses, and birth dates of real U.S. persons without their knowledge or consent. Using these means of stolen identification, Defendants and their coconspirators opened accounts at a federally insured U.S. financial institution (“Bank I”)

Louise Mensch reported last may about Silicon Valley Bank, a subsidiary of Alfa Bank, being under FISA investigation.  They could have used any bank in the United States, but there’s this little thing called the Patriot Act.  Part of it requires that all new bank accounts created require proof of human beingness and a physical presence. This prevents rampant fraud and money laundering.  The Russians would need feet on the ground to pull this off, and there’s just enough here to make me think SVB was used to set up the American Accounts.

Defendants and their co-conspirators purchased credit card and bank account numbers from online sellers for the unlawful purpose of evading security measures at PayPal, which used account numbers to verify a user’s identity. Many of the bank account numbers purchased by Defendants and their co-conspirators were created using the stolen identities of real U.S. persons. After purchasing the accounts, Defendants and their co-conspirators submitted these bank account numbers to PayPal.

See “California Man” below.

On or about August 18, 2016, the real “Florida for Trump” Facebook account responded to
the false U.S. persona “Matt Skiber” account with instructions to contact a member of the Trump
Campaign (“Campaign Official l “) involved in the campaign’s Florida operations and provided Campaign Official 1’s email address at the campaign domain donaldtrump.com. On approximately the same day, Defendants and their co-conspirators used the email address of a false U.S. persona, joshmilton024@gmail.com, to send an email to Campaign Official 1 at that donaldtrump.com email account, which read in part:

“Hello [Campaign Official l], [w]e are organizing a state-wide event in Florida on August, 20 to support Mr. Trump. Let us introduce ourselves first. “Being Patriotic” is a grassroots conservative online movement trying to unite people offline. . . . [W]e gained a huge lot of followers and decided to somehow help Mr. Trump get elected. You know, simple yelling on the Internet is not enough. There should be real action. We organized rallies in New York before. Now we’re focusing on purple states such as Florida.” The email also identified thirteen “confirmed locations” in Florida for the rallies and requested the campaign provide “assistance in each location.”

Here’s more proof that the Russians were trying to coordinate their events with Trump’s campaign. The group asked Florida for Trump for help in location scouting.

On or about August 24, 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators updated an internal ORGANIZATION list of over 100 real U.S. persons contacted through ORGANIZATION controlled false U.S. persona accounts and tracked to monitor recruitment efforts and requests. The list included contact information for the U.S. persons, a summary of their political views, and activities they had been asked to perform by Defendants and their co-conspirators.

If some random person in the Summer of 2016 reached out from Heart of Texas, Blacktivists, or one of the other groups mentioned, and asked you to recruit for their cause, congratulations.  You’ve been had by the Russians.  And, you’re probably under surveillance by the USIC as well.

 Use of U.S. Computer Infrastructure

To hide their Russian identities and ORGANIZATION affiliation, Defendants and their co- conspirators—particularly POLOZOV and the ORGANIZATION’s IT department—purchased space on computer servers located inside the United States in order to set up virtual private networks (“VPNs”). Defendants and their co-conspirators connected from Russia to the U.S.-based infrastructure by way of these VPNs and conducted activity inside the United States— including accessing online social media accounts, opening new accounts, and communicating with real U.S. persons—while masking the Russian origin and control of the activity.

Defendants and their co-conspirators also registered and controlled hundreds of web-based email accounts hosted by U.S. email providers under false names so as to appear to be U.S. persons and groups. From these accounts, Defendants and their co-conspirators registered or linked to online social media accounts in order to monitor them; posed as U.S. persons when requesting assistance from real U.S. persons; contacted media outlets in order to promote activities inside the United States; and conducted other operations, such as those set forth below.

Now we get to the IT side of things.  The Russians, with help here in the United States, purchased server space here, as well as a VPN connection that terminates in this country.  My guess is that these servers were located out west, like Arizona or California.  I’ve seen quite a few suspicious “news” sites on Facebook that Whois’ed to the same server farms out there.  They looked identical to sites from St. Petersburg, Moscow, or Crimea.  On top of this, they also used email services based in the United States to make these social media platforms.

Destruction of Evidence

In order to avoid detection and impede investigation by U.S. authorities of Defendants’ operations, Defendants and their co-conspirators deleted and destroyed data, including emails, social media accounts, and other evidence of their activities.

  1. Beginning in or around June 2014, and continuing into June 2015, public reporting began to identify operations conducted by the ORGANIZATION in the United States. In response, Defendants and their co-conspirators deleted email accounts used to conduct their operations.
  2. Beginning in or around September 2017, U.S. social media companies, starting with Facebook, publicly reported that they had identified Russian expenditures on their platforms to fund political and social advertisements. Facebook’s initial disclosure of the Russian purchases occurred on or about September 6, 2017, and included a statement that Facebook had “shared [its] findings with US authorities investigating these issues.”
  3. Media reporting on or about the same day as Facebook’s disclosure referred to Facebook working with investigators for the Special Counsel’s Office of the U.S. Department of Justice, which had been charged with investigating the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
  4. Defendants and their co-conspirators thereafter destroyed evidence for the purpose of impeding the investigation. On or about September 13, 2017, KAVERZINA wrote in an email to a family member: “We had a slight crisis here at work: the FBI busted our activity (not a joke). So, I got preoccupied with covering tracks together with the colleagues.” KAVERZINA further wrote, “I created all these pictures and posts, and the Americans believed that it was written by their people.”

As soon as Facebook shared their findings on the activity came out, they were literally destroying the evidence of their activities when one of them emailed a family member saying that she was busy with that.  That also says that we somehow had eyes on them.

Daily Check-In 10/17/2017 has a write-up of the boss of the Internet Research Agency.  He’s been called “Putin’s Chef”, so the use of Concord Catering in the indictment kind of makes sense now.

These indictments are important for several reasons.

  • They establish specific crimes against the United States performed by Russian nationals.
  • This shows directly that the Russians wanted Trump to win the election.
  • It shows that Americans helped in this matter.
  • Any action taken against the Special Counselor or Rod Rosenstein will be seen as helping Russia AND Obstruction of Justice.
  • The timing comes right after the IC heads told Congress that Russia attacked us and will attack us again.
  • It gives Congress time to either put election reforms and protections in place, or show their true colors.

Are these Russians going to get extradited to the United States?  Not unless they leave Russia.  Remember a few weeks ago when a a Russian hacker was captured on vacation in Spain and sent here?  If any of them try to leave Russia, they stand a good chance of getting stopped, detained, and shipped here to face trial.

Now, the Americans that helped them are a different story.

 

“CALIFORNIA MAN” RICHARD PINEDO PLEADS GUILTY

About an hour after the indictments dropped and the Trump supporters twisted themselves into knots saying “See, no Americans were involved!”, Mueller busts out a guilty plea for Richard Pinedo.

Richard ran a company called Auction Essentials, where he would sell bank account numbers on the dark web to anyone who had the money.  He would either set up the accounts himself, or buy them from someone else.  Richard would sell these accounts, and ask no questions.

It turns out that he sold some of these bank accounts to the Russians in the indictment, and they were used to bypass the PayPal verification system.  Anyone can set up an account with them, but to have it listed in the U.S., they require it being linked to a U.S. bank account.

I’ve never liked PayPal, and never will.  It’s too easy to scam people with it by reversing charges without proof, and the fraud protection sucked.  But they were the first “Internet Currency”, and without them, Elon Musk wouldn’t have launched an electric car into space.

There is a Richard Pinedo, of Ventura County, California that belongs to the Ventura County Tea Party.  I do not know yet if this is the same person or not, but I would not be surprised in the slightest at this point.

 

HOW TRUMP USED INTERMEDIARIES TO PAY OFF HIS AFFAIRS

Now that I’ve spent a lot of time talking about Russia fucking America, let me talk about Trump fucking young women.  More to the point, how his friends covered it up.

Ronan Farrow of the New Yorker broke one hell of a story about a young woman in the Adult Entertainment Industry that allegedly had an affair with Donald Trump just a few months after his wife gave birth to their son Barron, and how about a decade later, this woman was paid into silence.

No, it’s not Stormy Daniels.

It’s former Playmate of the Year Karen McDougall.

Their stories are almost the exact same.  They fucked Trump, he offered to pay them, they said no, it went on for a while, then they split up.  Years later, right before the election, a surrogate for Trump offers to pay the women if they’ll keep their mouth shut.

For Karen, that surrogate is David Pecker, owner of American Media, which owns the National Enquirer.  He bought her story for $150,000, promised her a platform for articles, and a couple other things.

Instead of publishing, Pecker buried the story.

Karen told her story, even at the risk of legal action, because she doesn’t want other women to go through what she’s gone through.

If you’re wondering who Ronan Farrow is, Ask Harvey Weinstein.

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

FCC CHAIRMAN AJIT PAI UNDER INVESTIGATION FOR POSSIBLY COLLUDING WITH SINCLAIR BROADCASTING

FACEBOOK TAKES DOWN NALVANY VIDEO

SCHIFF: HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE HAS PROOF OF RUSSIAN COLLUSION

 

RUMOR MILL: THE MEDIA CONSPIRACY

While most of Twitter and Reddit are talking about what’s going on today, I ran across a very interesting thread by Lincoln’s Bible.  He’s the one who mentioned a few weeks back about a lot of Anti-Trump movies in the pipeline in Hollywood.  This came out earlier in the day, right after the Ronan Farrow story broke.  It answered a question I had  a while back during the election.

We know that Trump is an asshole, a misogynist and a racist.  The Billy Bush Pussygate tape showed the first two definitively, and there are strong rumors of the last from several people that worked on The Apprentice.  Among these include Tom Arnold and George Takei.  Before the election, there was a large outcry for the behind-the-scenes tapes to leak out showing Trump dropping the N-word.  But the owner of that show, Mark Burnett, refused to release anything.

Why?  Why would he not do what was being seen as a patriotic duty and release information vital to the fate of the country?

Lincoln’s Bible answered that question…they be mobbed up.

Burnett and Pecker hold power over Trump, and are both fond of Vladimir Putin.  They hold undue leverage over Trump, and others in society.  Burnett made half the country think Donald Trump was what a good boss should be, and Pecker has been running Pro-Trump or Anti-Democrat stories on his tabloid rag for about two years.

I’m not sure where this is leading, but it’ll be interesting.  Not necessarily good, but interesting.

 

That’s it for today, I think.

So, what happens now?  I don’t know.  I still haven’t heard a confirmation that Rick Gates has signed his flipping paperwork, but that’ll probably happen Tuesday when the courts open.  There’s a reason the Russian Indictments came out today.  As I said, this makes it nearly impossible to fire Robert Mueller before he lays out Obstruction of Justice charges.  The end game is not Obstruction, but it will be the low-hanging fruit that gets Trump and Pence out of office.  Once they’re out, the Mueller can go for the kill.

Corruption.  Abuse of Power.  RICO.  Human Trafficking.  Money Laundering.  Espionage.  Treason.

I don’t how fast things will go from here on out.  I think these just bought several months, but I think things will accelerate from here on out.

Why?  I don’t know, I just got a feeling that things will go on a little faster from here on out, until we get to indictments against Trump for Obstruction of Justice.

Also, I’ve learned over the past couple years to always bet on stupid when Trump is involved.  Rule 45:  Out of all possible outcomes, pick the dumbest one available.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 02/15/2018

Thursday, February 15.

STEVE BANNON SPOKE TO SPECIAL COUNSELOR MUELLER’S TEAM FOR 20 HOURS LAST WEEK

20 hours.  That’s 2 and a half 8 hour days.  Half a workweek.  In other words, it’s a long ass time to spend talking to an investigator.

Steve Bannon, former Trump Campaign Manager and Chief Strategist in the White House, was fired by Donald Trump back in August 2017.

Steve connects the dots between Trump, the Mercers, the Racists and Nazis, and big data firms.  I’ve talked about Steve having to sing like a bird to avoid the gallows, and it sounds like he did just that.

In contrast, he only answered a couple dozen pre-arranged questions from the House Intelligence Committee.  Not a question or comment more.  It’s almost like he knows that there’s a mole in the HIC that reports direct to Trump **cough**Nunes**cough**.

 

RICK GATES PLEA DEAL INCOMING

Last time we received reports like this, it was right before Mike Flynn pleaded guilty and turned States Evidence.

Rick Gates, Paul Manafort’s business partner and the Chief of Staff to the Trump Inaugural Committee Chairman Tom Barrack, had a Queen for a day interview.

Yes, I had to Google that, too.  And no, I don’t think he was wearing a tiara and waving at crowds of passers by.

A Queen for a day interview is also known as a Proffer Interview.  During this, the perp tells the prosecutors EVERYTHING.  They answer any question asked, and they have to be truthful.  In return, the prosecutor will not use what they found out against the perp, and the perp gets a plea deal.

Rick Gates can deliver EVERYONE connected to the money.

 

RUSSIANS USED MAINSTREAM MEDIA TO INFLUENCE ELECTION

From the “No shit, Sherlock” department…

After a study of the Russian Social Media activity, it turns out that the Russians used a lot of Main Stream Media to further their agenda.

The timing is the interesting part.

The bots and trolls would jump on a story they liked immediately.  Like, it was just published, and already trending.

It’s almost like this was coordinated.  More on that in the Rumor Mill.

 

FLORIDA SHOOTER WAS RED HAT WEARING MAGA WHITE SUPREMACIST

I refuse to speak his name.  Speaking the name of a monster gives power to the monster.

According to reports, he was expelled from school and joined a group of White Supremacists who trained him to use an AR-15 and other weapons.  He also took video of himself training wearing his MAGA Redcap.

I look forward to the time when I’m old hear tales of horror as the grandchildren of Trump Supporters find MAGA hats buried in the attic or the closet.  The Redcap will earn its place in history next to the white hood and the swastika.

 

ONE YEAR AGO: TRUMP ENDED RULE THAT COULD HAVE PREVENTED MASS SHOOTING IN FLORIDA

This whole thing could have been avoided.

 

GUN LOBBY CONTRIBUTED NEARLY $6 MILLION TO GOP IN 2016, JUST OVER $100K TO DEMOCRATS

If you’re sick and tired of “Thoughts and Prayers”, vote out the Republicans.

 

NRA, TRUMP, AND RUSSIA

Fuck the NRA.  May those traitorous shits get the fate reserved for the worst of the sinners.

 

$26 MILLION FROM INAUGURAL FUND TO MELANIA’S FRIEND

In the middle of this tragedy, the Trump Inauguration Committee released their tax forms today.  There were some pretty interesting answers to the question “Where did the money go?”

Well, looks like $26 million of that went to her friend.

One of the companies, WIS Media Partners of Marina del Rey, California, was created by a longtime friend of Mrs. Trump, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, according to a person familiar with the firm. Records show that the firm was created in December 2016, but otherwise there is very little information available about it.

Also reaping payments for event production services was Hargrove, Inc., of Lanham, Md., a company that plans trade shows and other events, which was paid $25 million. David Monn of New York, who also is known for orchestrating society events and planned a state dinner for former President Barack Obama, was paid $3.7 million, and a company called Production Resource Group of New Windsor, N.Y., was paid $2.7 million, according to the tax return.

Other expenses for which the committee paid directly included ticketing, on which it spent $4.1 million, and promotional gifts, on which it spent $560,000.

It also spent heavily on payroll and administrative expenses, including spending $9.4 million on travel, $4.6 million on salaries and benefits for its 208 employees, $500,000 on legal fees and $237,000 on fund-raising.

Out of $107 million, nearly half of that went to two “event planners”, one of them being a company belonging to Melania’s friend that was started about a month before the inauguration.

This is a textbook case of embezzlement.

The friend, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, was also paid $1.6 million on top of the $25 million.  She now has an unpaid position in the White House, working for the First Lady.

So, I’m going follow up on my pledge that I recently made and blame evil white women.  Let’s stop pretending that Melania is innocent in this whole ordeal.  She may not be “Traitor to the Country” evil, but is at least “Let’s take the money and run” evil.

 

TRUMP TRAVEL BAN UNCONSTITUTIONAL

I know this seems like a repeat, and it is.  Each and every travel ban, and each iteration of it has been struck down by the courts.  It might have something to do with the obvious racist overtones…

Who the fuck am I kidding?

Trump flat out called for banning all Muslims from coming into the country, and wanted to kick out the ones already here.

This time, the ban was ruled unconstitutional because of the undue burdens it put on families of immigrants from countries on the ban by preventing Aunts and Uncles from visiting or gaining legal status.

Every American is an immigrant or descendants of immigrants.  Whether it’s 1 generation, 2 generations, 10, or 10,000, we are all immigrants.

 

PRIEBUS ON CHAOS IN TRUMP WHITE HOUSE: ‘TAKE EVERYTHING YOU’VE HEARD AND MULTIPLY IT BY 50’

A new book is coming out talking about how the White House Chief of Staff shapes a presidency.  Reince Preibus was interviewed regarding his time in the clusterfuck known as the Trump Presidency.  He described it as, well, a clusterfuck.

Below is an excerpt from the book.

Priebus, who left the White House last summer, said Attorney General Jeff Sessions twice tried to resign, but he convinced Sessions otherwise, according to excerpts published by The Associated Press.

“I said, ‘You cannot resign. It’s not possible. We are going to talk about this right now,’” Priebus recalled telling Sessions.

The attorney general, who has faced periodic criticism from President Trump, later offered his resignation, but Priebus urged Trump not to accept it, the former chief of staff said.

Priebus also said he didn’t support Trump picking a fight over the crowd size at his inauguration, which was smaller than former President Obama’s. However, Priebus ultimately relented, saying it wasn’t worth “going to go to war over” with Trump

So, in some roundabout way, Preibus is the reason that Jeff Sessions is still the Attorney General.

 

STORMY WATCH: SHE HAS A DRESS

Remember Monica Lewinsky and the Blue Dress?  If you don’t recall, here’s the short version…

Monica blew Bill Clinton and he came a little on her dress.  Instead of taking it to the cleaners, she kept it.  At some point, the news came out that this dress existed.

Well, it looks like Stormy Daniels has her own…dress?

Somehow, she has proof.  I don’t want to know.

 

RUMOR MILL:  TIP OF THE ICEBERG

Circling back to the WaPo story about Russia using the MSM to push their stories, Countercheckist and Louise Mensch had some things to say about that.  I linked to the Twitter thread right above, but here’s what’s going on…

I’ve described before how Louise said that the FBI is investigating Fox News as a company and Sean Hannity individually for pushing Russian propaganda.  We’ve also seen how Julian Assange is getting information to him, and how the White House and Fox News orchestrated the Seth Rich story to distract from Robert Mueller being named the Special Counselor to investigate Russia.  There’s a litany of other on-air personalities across multiple networks and journalists across the industry that were hacked by Russians.

Whether through blackmail or coercion, these people pushed the Russian agenda, often at the insistence and timing of Russia.  They were compensated for their actions in Bitcoin. When a story favorable to the Russians would drop, they would target it with their bots and trolls to increase the noise level.

How would they get these stories to the journalists?  Two ways.

First, semi-organically through Social Media.  An anonymous post on 4Chan, 8Chan, or Reddit would get picked up by the bots on Twitter, and those bots would get enough traction so that sites like Breitbart (who has Yandex search engine optimization code on their site to the time of this post) or Daily Caller would write a story about the Twitter trend. A site on the left would write a counter piece, and eventually Fox News and MSNBC would pick up the counterpoints.

The other method was through lobbyists.  These lobbyists, like Adam Waldman, would hire journalists and outlets to hire puff pieces on behalf of their clients, like Oleg Deripaska.  These pieces would end up getting picked up by the bots, then the cycle begins anew.

I first mentioned Adam Waldman last week in Daily Check-In 02/09/2018  after his texts ended up on Fox News.  If he was the contact between Deripaska and the media, Waldman should be very careful about where he gets his dinner for the next couple months.

Because of the Bitcoin usage, there will be a lot of tax stuff and money laundering charges coming down the pipe, but that is the least of the problems these people face.

Knowingly and willingly spreading propaganda of a hostile foreign power is Espionage at the least, Treason at the worst.  Both are Capital crimes in the United States.  That means the Death Penalty is an option.

On a brighter note, the Ex-President of Guatemala was arrested.  He’s looking at corruption charges.  This is the second Head of State in the last few days to face possible charges.  Israeli Police recommend bribery charges against Benjamin Netenyahu.  Netenyahu is deeply tied to Jared Kushner’s real estate empire, and was the recipient of bribes that came from money laundered through Kushner’s real estate.

When the Heads of State start falling, some serious shit is coming down the pipeline.

 

That’s it for today.  Nothing extra witty, but I was thinking about all of the scandals that Trump faces right now, and their unprecedented breadth and speed at which they’re coming down.  At first it was just a Watergate Speed Run, but now we’ve got the Lewinsky Speed Run, the Whitewater Speed Run, the Teapot Dome Speed Run, and probably a couple others as well.  This is what happens when a career criminal gets thrust into the most scrutinized position in the world.  Every single thing he’s done will come to light, and we’ve barely seen the tip of the iceberg.

 

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur