2018

Friday. The opening night of the Olympics. So, it’s a quiet night, right?

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

TRUMP WILL NOT RELEASE DEMOCRAT MEMO ‘RIGHT AWAY’

Ok, raise your hands if you’re surprised by this at all? Anyone? Anyone?

So, it looks like Trump, for the first time in his life, is worried about secrets getting out. Of course, when it comes to exposing his secrets, then he cares.

I’m sure this will be released right after his taxes, or Melania’s immigration paperwork, or Jared’s finalized SF-86 get released.

Of course, this isn’t over. Not by a long shot. Representative Adam Schiff also ran this past the DOJ and FBI to see if they had any problems with it, but they didn’t, aside from at most a couple small redactions. The Democrats can still release the memo legally by bringing this to a vote in the House, or it could be read on the House or Senate floor.

ANOTHER WIFEBEATER RESIGNS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE

Less than a day after Trump praised Rob Porter, a speechwriter who allegedly beat his wife resigned today.

Hiring wife beaters, criminals, and cheats isn’t a bug, it’s a feature.

RACHEL BRAND, NO. 3 AT JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, TO STEP DOWN

Rachel Brand stepped down from her position as the Third in Command at the Department of Justice today. This is still a developing story, but one rumor is that a Fortune 500 company gave her an offer that she couldn’t refuse.

Why is this important? Because of the ever-present threat of Donald Trump trying to fire Rod Rosenstein as Deputy Attorney General.

Because Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from any matters involving the campaign, which includes the Russian Investigation, Jeff can’t do anything to remove Robert Mueller or stop his team. If Rod Rosenstein is fired, then oversight of the investigation would fall to the Associate Attorney General, Rachel Brand.

But she just quit, so who’s next? Well, that’s where things get interesting.

According to Executive Order 13787, the next in line is the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA). Up until October, that attorney was Dana Boente, but he was fired by Jeff Sessions the weekend before Manafort and Gates were giving a matching set of bracelets. Currently, the Acting US Attorney in EDVA is Tracy Doherty-McCormick. She was named the first assistant back in October 2016.

Fun Fact. EO 13787 revoked EO 13775 by changing the order of succession to the following:

(a) United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia;

(b) United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina; and

13775 had the following:

(a) United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia;

(b) United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and

But 13775 revoked EO 13672 signed by President Obama a week before he left office. In that order, Obama changed the succession chain to the following:

(a) United States Attorney for the District of Columbia;

(b) United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and

Notice how he took EDVA out of the list? Obama purposefully removed Dana Boente from the succession list. At the time, people assumed that Boente must have done something wrong to piss off Obama. When Trump signed this on February 9, 2017, this was seen as nothing more than a ‘fuck you’ to Obama. Instead, Obama gave Trump a poison pill to swallow.

EDVA was already working with the FBI on the Russian Investigation in February. Boente briefed Rosenstein on Trump and Russia.

By the time Sessions fired Boente, the first series of indictments were being delivered. Dana Boente is now the FBI General Counsel. Trump and Sessions can’t touch him now.

Obama played Trump like a fiddle. He told him to not hire Mike Flynn, and he put this poison pill EO out there, knowing that Trump just couldn’t help himself in undoing what Obama did.

DUMBED DOWN BRIEFINGS STILL TOO HARD FOR TRUMP TO READ

Trump, by all standards, is functionally illiterate. Not just illiterate, but wallows in his ignorance like a pig wallows in shit.

At this point, I’m surprised he was able to give the Russians any Intel from Mossad. Did someone give him a coloring book with Mossad’s secrets in it?

JOHN KELLY WANTS TO STEP DOWN

Kelly supposedly offered his resignation, but it was refused. As much as Trump hates people making him look bad, he hates confrontation more.

He might be wondering what he has to do to get fired.

SENATOR FEINSTEIN SHREDS GRASSLEY’S CRIMINAL REFERRAL OF STEELE

The short version is “I can’t say exactly why this is bullshit, but it’s bullshit on so many levels, it’s a video game of bullshit.”

TRANSCRIPT FROM FEBRUARY 5 HOUSE INTEL COMMITTEE MEETING SHOW NUNES IS A TOTAL DICK

If you get time, read this. The disfunction and partisan brinksmanship is astounding. The entire GOP delegation wants to make this an investigation into Christopher Steele, while the Democrats ask “Why won’t you approve our subpoenas for Cohen’s bank accounts or travel records?”

DOZENS IN WHITE HOUSE UNABLE TO GET PERMANENT SECURITY CLEARANCE

This, of course, includes Jared Kushner.

There are many things that can cause the FBI to disqualify someone from getting a security clearance, but in normal times, one or two people not being able to get a clearance after several months would be a major scandal and embarrassment. For Trump, this is barely a blip on the radar.

JONATHAN WINER: HIS STORY

Winer is likely to be the target in Devin Nunes’s next memo. Winer, a former member of the State Department, passed the Cody Shearer memo on to Christopher Steele. What really scared Winer was that these two different people both alluded to potential corruption and blackmail connections to Trump from Russia, and they did so with independent sources.

It’s like the Intel version of the Scientific Method. If the research can be recreated, it fucking happened.

TRUMP MAD AT HOPE HICKS

Meanwhile, the President has told associates he’s dismayed at how the allegations involving his former staff secretary accused of domestic abuse were handled, but he isn’t certain how to solve the mushrooming controversy, a person familiar with the conversations tells CNN. Trump was not consulted when Hicks and several other aides drafted a White House statement defending Porter, and he is under the impression that Hicks has let her romantic relationship with Porter cloud her judgment, a source familiar said.

RAND PAUL: THE ONE MAN GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

Rand Paul, who just voted to cut taxes by $1.5 Trillion a few weeks back, decided that he didn’t want any more government spending increases, so he started a filibuster to prevent the Senate from voting on a spending bill until after Midnight. This caused the government to shut down for a few hours.

Remember, this guy got the fuck beat out of him by his neighbor a couple months ago.

RUMOR MILL: ALEX WALDMAN

This came in from Ale, aka @aliasvaughn around 8pm EST.

Remember last week or so when Sean Hannity got locked out of Twitter, and Julian Assange DM’ed a parody account saying he had some dirt on Senator Mark Warner? Daily Check-In 01/30/2018 has the details on that.

Well, it looks like these men aren’t too bright. Even after getting outed, Sean ran a story on his Fox News show claiming that Mark Warner was corrupt because he was texting with a lobbyist “connected to Clinton.” Sean had screenshots of Mark texting a man named Alex Waldman, telling him to be careful. Sean wanted to make this into a devastating scandal. And it would have worked too, if Marco Rubio didn’t say on Twitter that Mark Warner told the committee about this conversation months ago.

While Sean tried to make this the next biggest scandal that will take down the Russian Investigation this week, Ale caught something interesting.

The man in the texts was Alex Waldman. And according to Ale, he works for Oleg Deripaska.

Don’t know who that is? Neither do I. I can’t find much on Google about this guy, except a LinkedIn profile of a man by that name who works at Highline Capital Management in New York, and formerly for Kynikos Associates. Both of these are financial companies that do mutual funds and investment stuff…I think.

So, why is a banker in New York being told by a United States Senator on the Intelligence Committee being told to be careful? And what was Julian Assange doing with these texts?

I don’t know who he is, but he may be in danger.

I don’t know what Ale’s working at, or what she knows, but her research is solid and her hunches are usually spot-on.

That’s it for today. I want to put together a story or two over the weekend, but I’ll see what I can do. Next article up in the queue is about voter rolls versus voting machines, and why one is a much easier hacking target than the other.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 02/08/2018

Thursday.

OLEG DERIPASKA TIED DIRECTLY TO RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT

A big shout out to Alexei Nalvany for getting his hands on some footage from Oleg’s yacht.

So, quick refresher: Donald Trump brings Paul Manafort onto his campaign last year, in spite of the objections of everyone who thinks this looks shady AF. Manafort sets up a deal with Oleg to give him information on the campaign. Oleg is tight enough with the Russian Government that he can have one of the Deputy Prime Ministers and a close associate of Vladimir Putin, Sergei Prikhodko, on his yacht with a bunch of escorts in August 2016. Manafort was the campaign manager from June until August, when he was “fired” after evidence of his laundering money for Former Ukrainian President and Putin Puppet Viktor Yanukovych was published by the New York Times.

I put fired in quotes because while he was no longer officially part of the campaign, rumor has it that Paul was still in communication with Trump and some other senior members.

Trump talks to Paul, Paul talks to Oleg, Oleg talks to Sergei, Sergei talks to Vladimir.

DOW DROPS 1000 POINTS AGAIN

There are two numbers that one should not live their life by; their weight and the Dow Jones.

After a 600 point drop on Friday, 1200 down on Monday, 500 up on Tuesday, and a semi-stable Wednesday, the Dow dropped again by over 1000 points today.

It’s so scary I heard some of the computer stock brokers reformatted themselves.

GEORGE W. BUSH: RUSSIA INTERFERED IN OUR ELECTION

The Former President of the United States said this. Not just that, but one of only two living Republican Former Presidents, and the only one not having serious health problems.

This is interesting not just because W is enjoying not being the worst President of the last 30 years, but because former VP’s and Presidents have the option to receive the PDB, the Presidential Daily Briefing, the same intelligence report given to the current President every day. They see what Trump sees, and unlike Trump, they can read.

They know what’s going on, and have known for a long time. Something I said several months ago was that when the fecal matter strikes the mechanical air circulation device (when the shit hits the fan), the Ex-Presidents will stand, side by side, and address the nation. When they start speaking out against Trump and Russia, consider that the end of the act, and the beginning of the next one.

LARGE RUSSIAN DELEGATION AT PRAYER BREAKFAST

As I mentioned a few days ago, expect to hear more about the right wing connections among the religious groups. One to keep an eye on is between the American Evangelicals and the Russian Orthodox Church.

REPUBLICANS BUILDING PHYSICAL WALL BETWEEN HOUSE INTEL STAFFERS

Aside from the fact that the Republicans are building an ACTUAL FUCKING WALL IN THE OFFICE THEIR STAFFERS SHARE, the most important piece was a quote from Congressman Tom Rooney.

Rooney said one reason for the tension is an erosion of trust, exacerbated by an ongoing ethics investigation into the “entire Republican staff,” including “the woman up front that answers the phone” for alleged leaks. He later added that the matter was being handled by the Office of Congressional Ethics.

Yes. That’s right. The ENTIRE staff is under investigation, and their solution isn’t to work together or instruct the staff on proper ways of handling secrets, but to build a wall to keep the Democrats from seeing what they do.

Next week they’ll set up a bathroom schedule so that D’s and R’s don’t pee together.

PA SUPREME COURT: EQUAL, COMPACT AND CONTIGUOUS DISTRICTS ARE A CONSTITUTIONAL REQUIREMENT

The decision from the court came down, and in doing so they defined the requirements for legislative districts. They need to be equal, compact, and contiguous, as best as possible. Also, special attention should be paid to existing boundaries, and townships should not be split unless absolutely necessary.

How are these currently handled? Poorly. Hence the reason this case went all the way to the State Supreme Court.

What this also does is give other states, and possibly the Federal government, precedence and direction on how to handle these cases in the future.

The Republican Legislature has a short time to submit a redrawn map to the Governor for approval. If neither happens, then the court will use a mathematically drawn map generated by computer algorithm.

OP-ED FROM HUFFPO: WHITE WOMEN WHO ENABLE TRUMP DO NOT DESERVE THE BENEFIT OF YOUR DOUBT

This is a great article that I’m glad someone else wrote, because it perfectly illustrates something that I’ve been guilty of doing.

I’m not blaming evil white women for being evil white women. I’m blaming everyone else but the evil white women.

I’m blaming the men around them for the women’s actions.

When Ivanka pulled background moves to keep Chris Christie out of the White House, I blamed Jared Kushner.

When Kellyanne Conway repeatedly violated ethics rules and introduced the world to “Alternative Facts,” I blamed whoever wrote her notes.

When Sarah Huckabee Sanders lies to the nation repeatedly, I blamed her parents for raising her this way.

When Melania married Donald Trump for money, starting an affair with him while he was already married, I rationalized it as taking a job.

When Hope Hicks obstructed justice on Air Force One, I wondered “Surely that can’t be right…”

When Hope Hicks wrote a statement praising a wife beater, I blamed the culture she’s in.

When Hope Hicks… You know, I’m noticing a pattern here.

I have to start blaming evil women, especially the evil white women, for being evil white women.

Hope Hicks, Ivanka, Kellyanne, and Melania. They are not innocent bystanders. They are co-conspirators.

I will try to do my best for equal rights. I will do my best to assign blame where it belongs, regardless of gender. We can’t have equality until evil white women get the punishment they deserve.

FBI SURVEILLANCE OF CARTER PAGE MIGHT HAVE PICKED UP BANNON

Carter Page talked to Steve Bannon in January 2017, while he was under a FISA warrant. So, that means the FBI likely has notes on this conversation, if not the call itself. Supposedly, Bannon called Page and told him to stay off of television.

Why is this coming out now?

Bannon is supposed to meet with Mueller soon, and rumor has it he flipped like a gymnast. This could be a leak to let him know what the FBI knows about him, or it’s designed to discredit Bannon.

I wonder where this is heading.

SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE TO RELEASE ADDITIONAL TRUMP TOWER TRANSCRIPTS

The transcripts for 6 people interviewed about the June 9 Trump Tower meeting, including Donnie Jr., should be released sometime soon. Of course, using Senate time, sometime soon should be within a month or two.

Also, Senator Chuck Grassely couldn’t help but take a shot at Senator Diane Feinstein in his press release.

GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN 2: RAND PAUL BOOGALOO

Rand Paul is a dick. He’s also neck deep in Russian activity and connections, just like his daddy, Ron Paul. I still enjoy Rand asking on Twitter one day “Am I under investigation?”

Yes, Rand. Yes, you are.

RUMOR MILL: THE CURIOUS CASE OF JOHN KELLY

Whatever good will John Kelly had with the Rumor Mill is quickly evaporating.

When John Kelly took over as the White House Chief of Staff, he was supposed to be the adult in the room. A lifetime of honorable service in the Marines, an unapproachable character, and a take-no-prisoners attitude. He was supposed to bring stability to the White House.

When he took his position, everyone in the Rumor Mill proclaimed his appointment as a defining moment. Louise called him a White Hat. Countercheckist was in full support. The ex-soldiers were thrilled.

Then, we spent the next several months learning about him. And he’s been a colossal dickbag.

He’s attacked a black House representative for defending a Gold Star widow. He has called immigrants lazy. He’s been a mouthpiece for racist and sexist actions coming from Trump.

And now, it turns out that he looked the other way when his friend Rob Porter couldn’t get a security clearance because he beat both of his ex-wives.

So, what happened? Is John Kelly still a White Hat Good Guy? Is he pretending to be a massive dickbag? Are these his true colors? Is he actually enabling Trump’s racism?

I’m not sure, and the opinions are still split. Louise stands by him being a White Hat. Claude isn’t so sure. The ex-soldiers are ready to throw him under the bus.

Me? I want to hold out hope, but at this point I’m not so sure anymore. His main job is to keep Trump from starting a war and doing anything too stupid. Everything else is secondary, but it shows the man’s character.

If it turns out that years from now, he was acting like a massive dickbag to fit in, fine. But until then, that White Hat is a little dirty.

That’s it for today. If this seems a little light on the extraneous thoughts, I have a very stupid reason.

Yesterday, I’m loading the dishwasher, and I grabbed a steak knife by the blade. I didn’t hurt myself too much, but I did cut the tip of my finger. Nothing bad, and I was able to work through it yesterday. Today, I can plow through it, but it’s amazing how many typing strokes and trackpad motions are done with the pointer finger.

So that’s me, being a dumbass.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 02/07/2018

Wednesday. Quite a few things came in today, so I might have to speed through things.

DHS CONFIRMS THAT SEVERAL STATES WERE HACKED BY RUSSIANS

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed today that the voter rolls of at least 12 states were penetrated by the Russians, but a smaller number were altered.

Of course, that assumes that they states would even know if those databases were hacked in the first place, let alone had any audit tracking built in to track changes.

A lot of databases can have the data edited directly without having a data trail. This tracking has to be turned on. Different types of databases do this differently, but lazy database architecture wouldn’t have tracking built in. Comparing to backups might not be helpful either, since those could have been corrupted as well.

TRUMP SAYS HE WANTS TO MEET WITH MUELLER, AGAINST LEGAL ADVICE

Donald Trump is a like a stupid Eric Cartman, if Eric was an even worse example of a human being. Trump gonna do what he want.

Of course, this is likely all bluster. Trump is a bully, and lies all the time.

SIZE AND SPEED OF MUELLER PROBE FASTER AND GREATER THAN MOST KNOW

I’m not surprised at the scope and speed of Mueller’s investigation, but then again, I’ve been tracking things daily since last July, and been watching things take shape since the Summer of 2016.

Most of the Main Stream Media has been behind the curve, either through incompetence or on purpose. They refused to cover the Russian interference as it happened, they refused to dig into Trump’s past connections with criminals. They have chased the shiny bauble while ignoring actual news. The MSM thinks this is only about Obstruction of Justice. This is about much more than that.

WHITE HOUSE RESPONSE TO PUERTO RICO WORSE THAN PREVIOUSLY KNOWN

In any normal universe, leaving American citizens without power for four months at a time would destroy any administration. Instead, this is barely a blip on the radar.

I’ve been a proponent of Puerto Rican statehood for a long time. Not just because I think a 51 star flag looks cool, but for other, actual reasons. I hope that PR is one of the many things we fix in the next few years.

APPRENTICE CREATORS SAY ‘TRUMP THE BILLIONAIRE REAL ESTATE TYCOON’ MYTH CREATED FOR SHOW

Trump being competent is a myth as well. But let’s break this down…

He’s not a billionaire, by any definition of the term. He doesn’t make more than billion dollars a year, and he doesn’t have over a billion dollars in cash and/or other liquid assets. He owns buildings that are worth more than a billion, but he doesn’t own them outright. He owes a crapton of money on them. He’s deep in debt. So far in debt that he doesn’t have more than a billion dollars in assets available after doing the math.

Making money in Real Estate in New York is the easiest way to make money in the world. Here’s how…

Buy something.

Hold onto it until someone wants to use it.

Sell at a profit.

That’s it. That’s all there is to it. Even better, renting out property is even easier.

Buy something.

Have people pay you to use it.

Make money until the end of time.

There’s no brilliant instincts or business acumen needed. If he made billions in modern day Detroit, that would be something. But New York is like playing Real Estate Tycoon on easy.

PELOSI HOLDS THE HOUSE FLOOR TELLING STORIES OF DREAMERS

Nancy Pelosi spent over 8 hours telling the stories of the Dreamer children on the floor of the House, just trying to get Paul Ryan to bring DACA legislation to a vote.

Of course, that might require him to grow a spine. I look forward to him getting rolled up in the investigation.

REPUBLICANS JOIN DEMOCRATS IN SPEAKING OUT ABOUT TRUMP’S TREASON TALK

So far, it’s been some of the more responsible members of the party, like Senators not up for re-election.

GARZA AND HARRIS TAX OFFICES RAIDED BY FBI IN DALLAS

This one is a little obscure, but comes from the Rumor Mill. The offices of a tax lawyer who advises their clients with some less-than-proper methods to hide their tax money. Not only are their tactics not above board, their clients aren’t either.

How does this tie to Trump? At least one of partners, Dr. John Changiz Vafai, is also a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington D.C. The Wilson Center offers an ‘Alfa Fellowship Program’.

Yes, that Alfa. Alfa Bank. The one that the Russian Government uses as a puppet and stand-in.

HOW #RELEASETHEMEMO SPREAD AMONG TROLLS, BOTS, AND TRUMP SUPPORTERS

This is a great story by Molly McKew which illustrates how the hashtag associated with the Devin Nunes memo took off.

The saddest part of the whole charade is that, by the end, GOP politicians either didn’t know they were being played by bots and trolls, or didn’t care. As long as they got their piece.

13 SUBPOENAS BLOCKED BY GOP MEMBERS OF HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE

The House Oversight Committee is not overseeing anything that could be slightly critical of Trump. They have abandoned their mission and jobs. They need to be removed. Remember this on election day later this year.

ISRAELI LAW ENFORCEMENT RECOMMENDS PRIME MINISTER NETENYAHU TO BE INDICTED FOR CORRUPTION CHARGES

Benjamin Netenyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, has been under investigation for corruption, abuse of power, money laundering, accepting bribes, and pretty much just being an asshole. Just like Trump, Ben blames his IC for executing a ‘deep state coup’ against him.

The Mossad does not fuck around, and Netenyahu has been putting his personal benefits above those of the nation of Israel.

Sound familiar? If so, it’s because Ben is directly tied to Kushner and Trump. Ben received bribes that can be traced through intermediaries that laundered the money by purchasing Trump condos.

WHITE HOUSE STAFF SECRETARY ROB PORTER RESIGNS AFTER ALLEGATIONS OF SPOUSAL ABUSE SURFACE

This is a bit of a crazy story, but makes sense given these people.

Rob Porter, the White House Staff Secretary, the person who makes Trump’s schedule and does the day to day stuff, resigned after a story broke about how both of his ex-wives accused him of spousal abuse. That’s a polite way of saying he beat the fuck out of them.

Because of these allegations, he couldn’t get a security clearance. That should be the end of the story, but instead it gets more screwed up as Rob Porter’s current girlfriend, Hope Hicks, wrote the White House’s response.

Yes, that Hope Hicks. This is the fifth man she’s been rumored to have slept with and/or had a relationship with.

Porter was going to stay on in the White House, but once pictures of one of his exes black eyes hit the wire, he was dead man walking.

Good.

RESPONSE TO TRUMP’S PARADE DEMANDS AMOUNT TO A BIG, FAT, ‘FUCK YOU!’ TO CHEETO MUSSOLINI

Fuck Trump, and his Soviet-Era despotic desires. My favorite quote came from a Marine on Twitter.

“After talking around to other Marines, the only way we’d take part in a parade for Trump was if he was being dragged behind an AMTRAK.”

Everyone thinks the parade would be a bad idea. A better use for the money would be housing homeless vets or giving the money to the VA Hospital System.

RUMOR MILL: CALIFORNIA LOVE

One thing that I’ve thought from time to time during this whole clusterfuck is “Why aren’t there any stories coming from California?” Why haven’t we heard anything about Trump’s exploits from the Left Coast?

Trump owns a place in Beverly Hills, and lived the party lifestyle out there for a long time. He played with the likes of Harvey Weinstein, and every other slime ball out there, but no stories have leaked out.

That might be changing soon.

Eric Garland was a little coy and cheeky, but mentioned that we might be hearing about how Not-for-profits were used to launder money. Don’t be surprised if the laundered money is tied to human trafficking and slavery.

Here’s how that could work…

Bad Guy has a lot of dirty cash, but spend it. His tax guy sets up a 501(3) or 501(c) non-profit charity. The money is moved from an offshore shell company to the non-profit, then the funds are disbursed for whatever reason they need. However, a large “endowment” is made to another group, which then makes it’s way back to the Bad Guy. Maybe throw a gala or something else to make it look legitimate, but for the most part, it’s not needed.

What makes this even more disgusting is that these donations to charity are tax deductible for the most part. So they save money on their taxes by breaking the law.

That’s it for today. I think I’ll do a little write-up to explain how voter suppression works, and how hacking the voter rolls is far more effective, easier, and more likely than attacking the vote totals themselves. I’ll include how those could be involved as well, but after the write-up, it should be pretty obvious why the voter rolls are the better target.

Thank you, and have a good one

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 02/06/2018

Tuesday. At least, I think it’s Tuesday.

DETAILS EMERGE ABOUT HOW CHRIS STEELE WORKED WITH THE FBI, JOHN McCAIN

The Washington Post released this account of Christopher Steele and how his Dossier ended up in the hands of the FBI. I’m watching Rachel Maddow right now, so I have not had a chance to dig through this the way it deserves.

One interesting tidbit that didn’t have much to do with the Russian Investigation was that Steele’s former boss at MI6, Richard Dearlove, said Steele’s story reminded him of a previous incident back when he was in the British Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Dearlove said their situation reminded him of a predicament he had faced years earlier, when he was chief of station for British intelligence in Washington and alerted U.S. authorities to British information that a vice presidential hopeful had once been in communication with the Kremlin.

Seriously? That’s fucked up, and a pretty short list.

Dearlove was in D.C. from 1991 to 1994, so the only Presidential election during his tenure was the 1992 election. That year was a little different, as it was a 3 way race between George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Ross Perot. Of course, there were a bunch of third party candidates as well. The list of people he was talking about is maybe 10-20 people long, tops.

Might be worth a dig one day. In the meantime, I want to give this story more attention over the next few days.

BANNON, THE HIC, AND MUELLER

Bannon’s subpoenaed testimony for the House Intelligence Committee will have to wait until after his meeting with Robert Mueller.

Right now, Bannon’s lawyers are delaying. They’re purposefully wasting the time of the House Intelligence Committee. Earlier today, they said that they would gladly answer up to 14 yes or no questions that were cleared by the White House first, since they might claim executive privilege.

The likelihood of Steve Bannon flipping on Trump has grown exponentially. He might want to be careful about what and where he eats for the next week or so.

THE MANY CLAIMS OF CARTER PAGE

Carter Page claimed on Russian Television that he had several meetings with Donald Trump.

He has also claimed to be an adviser to both Donald Trump’s Campaign and the Kremlin.

How in the Crystal Pepsi Flavored Fuck did he ever get himself in these messes?

Better still, why in the fuck would Devin Nunes pick the Sheldon Cooper of Treason to be the poster boy for abuses by the Intelligence Community?

TRUMP’S LAWYERS WANT HIM TO AVOID A MEETING WITH MUELLER

Trump’s lawyers don’t want their client to talk to Robert Mueller. They also think that Mueller wouldn’t subpoena the President to testify before a Grand Jury.

Mueller’s team members indicted the wives of Enron executives to get them to testify against their husbands and friends. Serving a subpoena to the President is a bucket list item.

DEFINITION OF IRONY: ‘MEXICAN JUDGE’ TO HEAR CASE ABOUT TRUMP BORDER WALL

Judge Gonzalo Curiel is hearing a case about the Trump Border Wall.

If his name sounds familiar, he’s the judge that Trump said couldn’t be impartial about him during the Trump University fraud case because his name “sounded Mexican.”

The basis of the case is that it’s a challenge against the waivers that the Federal Government is using to get around environmental regulations in California. The waivers were originally issued back in 1996 and 2005, and do not meet current regulatory guidelines for natural impact.

PENNSYLVANIA GOP REP THREATENS PA SUPREME COAURT WITH IMPEACHMENT FOR RULING AGAINST GOP IN GERRYMANDERING CASE

Fuck this prick, and anyone who thinks this is a good idea.

It is technically possible for them to pull this off. Impeachment in Pennsylvania is modeled after the Federal method. A majority in the House makes the charge, and the Senate requires a 2/3rds majority vote.

If a vote were completely along party lines, it could happen. Pennsylvania is so gerrymandered at every level to favor the GOP that they hold a 121-84 advantage in the House, and a 34-16 margin in the Senate.

HOW THE REPUBLICANS RIGGED CONGRESS

Partisan Gerrymandering is killing Democracy.

Here’s a segment from the article…

The visionaries at the Republican State Leadership Committee, who designed the aptly-named strategy dubbed REDMAP, short for Redistricting Majority Project, managed to look far beyond the short-term horizon.

What will it take to dominate redistricting? Gillespie lays it out as an equation: Republicans can win 20 to 25 new seats in Congress for each of the next five electoral cycles with a $31.5 million investment on state legislative races in 2010. The cost of not acting? If the Democrats controlled those seats, or they remained swing districts, he estimated that mounting competitive campaigns in those 20-25 districts would cost $255 million over the next decade.

That $31.5 million would be spent micro-targeting state legislative districts that Republicans identified as crucial to winning state legislative chambers and dominating redistricting.

It proved more effective than any Republican dared dream. Republicans held the U.S. House in 2012 despite earning 1.4 million fewer votes than Democratic congressional candidates, and won large GOP majorities in the Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and North Carolina state legislatures even when more voters backed Democrats.

Indeed, even while Democrats sense momentum as we draw closer to the 2018 midterms, the path back to power is steep. Republicans control nearly 70 percent of all state legislative chambers. Democrats have not flipped a congressional seat from red to blue during this entire decade in such ostensible swing states such as North Carolina, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Those states alone currently send 49 Republicans and 20 Democrats to Washington — a 29-seat edge that’s larger, all by itself, than the overall current GOP House majority.

JULIAN ASSANGE STILL HAS A WARRANT FOR HIS ARREST IN U.K.

In good news, Julian Assange is still a fugitive from the United Kingdom.

At this point, he can stay in the Ecuadorian Embassy until we come calling for him. He has a lot to answer for.

DEMOCRATIC MEMO ‘TOO LENGTHY’ FOR TRUMP TO READ AT 10 PAGES

10 pages is too long? Are you fucking kidding me?

According to a Frequently Asked Questions about publishing books, a manuscript page is about 250-300 words. Using simple math, that’s 2500-3000 words. I’ve written several posts longer than that. If you’ve ever read one of my blog posts, congratulations. You have read more in a few minutes than the President of the United States would bother to read in 4 days.

NUNES’S NEXT TARGET: JONATHAN WINER

Devin Nunes is planning more memos. His next target, according to Natasha Bertand, is State Department employee Jonathan Winer.

Winer supposedly was the go-between on the Shearer Dossier, and helped get it into Christoper Steele’s hands.

If this next memo is as “Earth Shattering” as his previous bullshit, then we’ll probably find out that Winer actually fought Russian spies in hand to hand combat, but Nunes would try to paint the story that the Russians were the nice guys, but the details were printed in too small of a font.

THE DOTARD WANTS A MILITARY PARADE

Cheeto Mussolini wants a Cold-War Soviet Era parade down Pennsylvania Avenue.

On the eve of yet another government shutdown, he wants to waste millions of dollars on a parade, followed by millions more to fix the road after the tank treads rip the road to shreds.

Here’s to the bureaucrats that will hopefully slow-walk the request from one department to another, losing verifications and requiring triplicate forms for requisitions from departments that are not responsible for the equipment in the first place, and the only person who knows who’s responsible is on leave.

RUMOR MILL: BE CAREFUL OF THE OUTLANDISH

Something weird happened today. Okay, weird by 2018 standards.

Two groups released two different stories, but both with the same overall story.

Gateway Pundit (far right web site) and the Krassenstein Brothers (left wing reporters) both broke stories claiming that Carter Page was actually a double agent, and his idiot supreme act is just an act.

These stories made their way around for a few minutes, but were both shot down hard by the core of the Rumor Mill.

Aside from the fact that the FBI wouldn’t get a FISA warrant against a cooperating witness, and that this sounds a hell of a lot like an operation exploiting Horseshoe Theory, this is a little too weird and doesn’t fit the known evidence.

I know this sounds a bit hypocritical coming from a blog about uncovering and chronicling the largest conspiracy in history, but be wary of crazy claims. Follow Occam’s Razor. The simplest explanation that fits the facts is to be preferred.

Now, I will be honest, there was a part of me that wants this tale to be true. I want there to be an explanation for his complete stupidity. He’s a paradox. On paper, he’s brilliant. He’s a top 10 percent graduate of the Naval Academy, has a couple Ph.D.’s, and has endeared himself to the leadership of both America and Russia. At the same time, he does the dumbest shit possible. He goes on television and talks about traveling to Russia the same day it’s announced his old co-worker pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. He brags about meeting Trump on Russian TV, but then tries to lawyer ball the Senate Intelligence Committee over how he defines met.

Is Carter Page a secret double agent and mole for the FBI? No. I believe Marx said it best. He may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot, but don’t let that fool you… He really is an idiot.

That’s it for today. I don’t know what’s in line for the rest of the week. Hopefully the pace isn’t too crazy, but let’s be honest, shit’s gonna get crazy. I have learned one thing about myself the last few days. I’m not as good at writing and watching TV in the background as I thought I was. 2 hours of writing in seclusion becomes 3-4 hours on the couch with the television playing.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur