Tag: Rumor Mill

Daily Check-In 04/05/2018

Thursday, April 5th.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

As Manafort’s first trial date approaches, we’ll hear more and more about all of his attempts to kill this investigation, followed by the inevitable smackdown delivered by Mueller.

 

CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA AND FACEBOOK

Robert Mercer is literally the Far Right-Wing version of the boogeyman they claim George Soros to be.  Mercer is literally evil.  And he knows he’s screwed.

Remember back last year (Daily Check-In 11/2/2017) that Robert Mercer stepped down from his business ventures and shifted everything over to his daughters, just a few days after Manafort and Gates were first charged?  He knows that soon, the knives will be out for him, and there will be no quarter given to him or his family for their attack on democracy itself.

Also, if anyone reading this owns Facebook stock, I recommend selling it off.  I don’t usually advise a sell-off when a company gets bad news, but this is “destruction of a business model” bad news.

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

Their proposed merger to Tribune MUST be stopped.

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS: SCOTT PRUITT MAKES CASE FOR MOST CORRUPT TRUMP OFFICIAL

Scott Pruitt has passed from normally corrupt to criminally corrupt in a matter of days.  I am honestly surprised that in a cabinet with Wilbur Ross, Betsy DeVos, and Steve Mnuchin, that Scott Pruitt is the most corrupt.

Now that I’ve said this, let’s see how long it takes before we find out that Linda McMahon runs a sweatshop full of slaves to make WWE’s merchandise.  (Please don’t be true).

 

SAY GOODBYE TO THE ECONOMY

Trump is about to lose his support on Wall Street.  They are greedy AF, but their greed can be counted on.  As long as they can continue to make money, they’re okay with other problems.  But fuck with their bottom line, and they’ll end you.

 

STORMYWATCH, FROM THE STORMCENTER 6000 METEOROPORNOLOGICAL CENTER

Just when I thought that this couldn’t get stupider, Trump says, to the press, that he didn’t know that his lawyer paid off Stormy Daniels.

If he’s telling the truth, then Cohen can say goodbye to his legal license.

If Trump’s lying, then Cohen and Trump are in even bigger legal trouble.

The only workable defense at this point for Cohen would be if, IF, he had previous authorization to work on similar cases, then he might be able to operate without Trump’s know-how on each and every case.  Problem is, that raises a bigger question…

How many women has Cohen worked to fix?

 

AND NOW, THE WEATHER (CLIMATE)

When it comes to climate change, one argument I’ve heard from conservatives is always the “scientists can’t agree.”

Here’s an analogy that might help…

Playoff hockey starts in a week.  Two fans of the Pittsburgh Penguins are arguing with each other about whether Phil Kessel should be on a power play line with Evgeni Malkin or Sydney Crosby, or a super line with both.  The fans argue the pros and cons of all of the options, then finish this with a good old fashion “Fuck the Flyers!”  Someone who doesn’t follow hockey hears this and assumes that hockey doesn’t exist.

That is “scientists can’t agree” argument.  They are the spectator watching the argument.

 

RED STATE TEACHER STRIKES

 

TRUMP HATES BROWN PEOPLE

 

CAN WE GET BACK TO POLITICS?

 

RUMOR MILL:  CREDULITY ABOUT THE DAILY MAIL

There are a few media organizations that, despite being big names, don’t have a sterling reputation.  One of those is the Daily Mail.

The Daily Mail is a British tabloid newspaper, about a step or two above the National Enquirer in legitimacy, but a few rungs below The Onion for satire.  Political reporting isn’t

So, when they release a story that says the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia was bragging about using U.S. Intelligence given to him by Jared Kushner to go after his enemies, I take it with a grain of salt.

Don’t get me wrong, from everything I’ve seen about their meeting and the timing of MSB going after his enemies, it makes sense.  I’m just skeptical about this story coming from the Daily Mail.  But, then again, like one of my old coaches used to say “Even a blind squirrel finds a nut from time to time.”

If this story gets picked up by other outlets, I’ll gladly admit that the Daily Mail broke the story first.

 

That’s it for today.  Well, yesterday.  I needed to get some sleep.  Last night was the first time I had more than 5 hours of sleep on a weeknight in a few weeks.

As far as Friday is concerned, I hope to start that article right after this one is published.  I have a few big things going on tonight, but worst case scenario, I’ll publish something Saturday morning.

This weekend is a big one for wrestling fans and in honor of that, my weekend post will be about WWE Hall of Famer Donald Trump, and how he is the ultimate heel, (bad guy), and why and how his presidency could work as a great angle (story).

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

Daily Check-In 04/04/2018

Wednesday, April 4th.  This post will be very light on the writing.  I’m getting a late start tonight.  I’m hoping this doesn’t become a pattern, but sometimes life happens.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION: MUELLER STOPPING SUBJECTS IN AIRPORTS

One argument I ran into on Reddit about this was someone saying that Trump and Pence would recreate history, a la Nixon and Ford.

This assumes that Pence would give Trump a pardon, he isn’t neutered in the process, and that he’s still VP when this goes down.

I’m having a hard time nailing down Pence’s loyalty, but he doesn’t strike me as willing to sacrifice himself to save Trump, especially if Trump is looking down the barrel of serious charges against the state.

Next, the political costs would be too great for Mike to pardon Trump, or anyone in the administration. Commutation of some sentences might be acceptable for a few people, but assuming the worst, pardoning people charged with Conspiracy Against The United States, Espionage, and Treason would destroy his presidency.

Plus, Pence was the head of the Trump Transition Team, the same group that Mike Flynn was working for when Flynn was caught on tape with the Russian Ambassador. Pence’s only defense at this point is that he didn’t know what his subordinates were doing. If even one of the cooperating witnesses fingered Pence, he’s done for. Remember, there is no constitutional protection guarantee for a Vice President. Spiro Agnew was indicted while in office and forced to resign.

The last option of Pence leaving office before Trump is far-fetched, but goes to show how screwed up things are. The fact that this is even a possibility that must be entertained is absurd. But, here we are.

Mueller’s team is having the FBI stop people of interest as they cross through customs, where there’s a bit of a no man’s land of legal rights.  They’re stopping these people, interviewing them, digging into their connections to Trump and American politics, and either making copies of their electronic devices or seizing them outright.

The article doesn’t name the oligarchs, but there’s some info in the Rumor Mill.

Roger Stone appeared on the InfoWars radio show the same day he sent an email claiming he dined with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange — and he predicted “devastating” upcoming disclosures about the Clinton Foundation.

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA AND FACEBOOK

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS: McMASTER RESISGNS, PRUITT MAKES CASE FOR MOST CORRUPT CABINET OFFICIAL

 

IMMIGRATION: TRUMP HATES BROWN PEOPLE

 

SAY GOODBYE TO THE ECONOMY

 

RED STATE TEACHER STRIKES

 

CAN WE GET BACK TO POLITICS?

 

RUMOR MILL:  WHO WAS STOPPED AT THE AIRPORT?

From the thread…

Oleg Deripaska’s M-SAWO 2/28/18 Moscow-Teterboro. Something is happening in NY… Vekselberg’s P4-MIS flew from Thailand, Abramov’s D-ALEX from Moscow to Newark, Abramovich’s LX-GVI from LA to Teterboro and Blavatnik’s N671LE from Europe to Teterboro, all on the same day, 2/28🤨

We already know Oleg Deripaska, but who are the others?

Viktor Vekselberg, owner and president of Renova Group, personally worth $13.6 billion.

Alexander Abramov, owner of Russia’s largest steel producer, personally worth $4.3 billion.

Roman Abramovich, owner of Millhouse LLC investment company and Chelsea Football Club, personally worth $10.8 billion

Len Blavatnik, founder of Access Industries, Russian-born American and British citizen, major philanthropist, personally worth $21.2 billion.

So, we have 4 billionaires landing in New Jersey.  3 in Teterboro right outside of New York, and 1 in Newark, all on the same day, all on a Wednesday.

Why?  What happened that day?

Daily Check-In 02/28/2018 saw Paul Manafort appear in court, and several stories aired about Russian trips during the campaign.  Daily Check-In 03/01/2018 let it out that Mueller was looking to indict the Russian hackers at Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear, working for the GRU.

I’m not exactly sure why they met in New York (maybe they had Hamilton tickets?), but it sounds like Mueller’s team was waiting for them.

Remember, this is all rumor and supposition, but if these four met for some nefarious reason, and used their cell phones or laptops to communicate, getting stopped in customs  by the FBI makes for a very bad day.  It’s like going through a DUI checkpoint followed by a colonoscopy. No matter how it goes, it ends with a sore ass.

 

 

That’s it for today.  Like I said, it’s late, and I’m tired.  Let’s see how Thursday goes.  I might be offline for most of Friday night, but I’ll try to gather some stories earlier in the day.  I don’t like to talk about personal details here, but I might be unable to write that night.  I’ll see what happens.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daily Check-In 04/03/2018

Tuesday April 3rd.  And it’s my 200th blog post!

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION:  TRUMP IS A SUBJECT OF THE INVESTIGATION

Way to kick off my 200th post!  President Donald J. Trump is officially a subject in a criminal investigation.

Time for some semantics…

The difference between a subject and a target in a criminal investigation is twofold.  First, assuming the prosecutor isn’t lying to keep the person at ease, a subject is someone who hasn’t been charged with a crime yet.  If the prosecutor is lying, they’ll tell the person that they’re a subject but not a target to get something out of them, like an interview.

But that’s not the biggest part of this story.

Per the Special Counselor regulations, Mueller’s team is required to submit a report to the Attorney General, or acting Attorney General  who appointed the Special Counselor.  In this case, that would be Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.  Mueller wants to interview Trump so he can wrap up the Obstruction part of their report.

The special counsel also told Trump’s lawyers that he is preparing a report about the president’s actions while in office and potential obstruction of justice, according to two people with knowledge of the conversations.

Mueller reiterated the need to interview Trump — both to understand whether he had any corrupt intent to thwart the Russia investigation and to complete this portion of his probe, the people said.

The Mueller team is ready to wrap this up.  The interview is the last piece, and they already know the answers to the questions they’re going to ask.  They just need to fill in the sections where Trump lies his ass off.

Now, why’s that report so important?  Three big reasons why…

First, this answers all of the questions the public has about Trump’s Obstruction of Justice.

Second, it signals the end of a major phase of the investigation.  They’ve got all they need to reach their conclusion.

Finally, this report forms the basis of the actions that follow.  Let’s assume, for a moment, that Robert Mueller finds something criminal in his investigation against Trump and his retinue (Shocking, I know).  Since the decision is still up in the air about whether or not Mueller can directly indict Trump, and the proper course in the Constitution for handling a corrupt President is through Congressional Impeachment, this report would form the basis for Impeachment proceedings.

If, however, Congress refuses to take action on criminal findings, then we’re left in the historic position of the Special Counselor indicting a sitting President.

By the way, this story also explains Trump’s wrath against Amazon for the past week.  As noted in the following stories:

Jeff Bezos owns both Amazon and The Washington Post.  Trump can’t shut down WaPo, but he could try to make life miserable for Jeff.  The guy so rich that he bought Whole Foods for a price worth 4 times all of Trump’s properties, with his profits from a couple months from Amazon.

 

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein explicitly authorized the Justice Department’s special counsel to investigate allegations that President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman colluded with the Russian government, according to a court filing late Monday night.

Wow.

Here is a link to filing (282 pages!)  Rosenstein’s memo is the last two pages.

Something that I caught on Rachel Maddow was a little something on page 42 of the briefing.  (Page 50 of the PDF, it includes the Table of Contents.)

As explained above, every key step in this case—including the investigative path and the
Indictment itself—has been authorized by the Acting Attorney General through ongoing
consultation. Additionally, under the applicable rules, the National Security Division (NSD)
approved the charges relating to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), and the Tax Division
approved the tax-related charges. See 28 C.F.R. § 600.7(a) (special counsel is to comply with
Department of Justice rules, regulations, procedures, and policies); USAM § 6-4.200 (Tax Division
must approve all criminal tax charges); USAM § 9-90.710 (NSD must approve FARA charges).
And the Senior Assistant Special Counsel in charge of this prosecution is a long time, career
prosecutor with the internal authority to conduct this prosecution, separate and aside from his role
in the Special Counsel’s Office. In light of the ongoing supervision by the Acting Attorney General
and involvement by other career DOJ attorneys, any error claimed by Manafort would be harmless.

So, what does this legalese mean?  Two things.

First, the Special Counselor’s team was not working alone.  They’re working with other law enforcement groups in the government.  NSD is a part of the Main Justice Department.  The Tax Division is from the Treasury Department.

Second, and biggest of all, the Senior Assistant Special Counsel has complete authorization to prosecute these cases outside of their role on the Special Counselor’s team.

This is the goddamned dead man’s switch.  The poison pill.  The Hydra.

We have proof that if Mueller is removed, The Justice League has their marching orders; prosecute the cases, nothing changes, continue the work.  The only difference is that instead of 1 Lead Federal Prosecutor, there would be half a dozen or more.

 

 

Alex Van der Zwaan will head to prison for 30 days, get a $20,000 fine, and 3 months probation.  He’s allowed to leave the country and return to London after serving his jail time.

Alex was Rick Gates’s lawyer at one point, and tried to delete emails regarding his knowledge of dealings with Rick Gates, Paul Manafort, and Russian GRU officer Konstantin Kiliminik.

Alex is also the son-in-law of German Khan, founder of Alfa Group and a Russian Oligarch with very close ties to Vladimir Putin.

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINES 

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

TRADE WAR WITH CHINA: SAY GOODBYE TO THE ECONOMY

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS:  SCOTT PRUITT GETS THE “VOTE OF CONFIDENCE”, TRUMP HATES BROWN PEOPLE

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

TRUMP ORG CORRUPTION, FROM THE WATER IS WET DEPARTMENT

 

 

 

 

 

 

CAN WE GET BACK TO POLITICS?

 

RUMOR MILL

Spicy goes into some more details and speculations about what was redacted in that memo from DAG Rosenstein.

Remember the Florida teacher that was fired for being an Alt Right piece of trash?  This article was from March 4th.  Earlier today, she resigned from her teaching job after she was outed for hosting a White Supremacists podcast.

Well, while everyone else was focusing on the racism, Louise caught something else.  Dayanna, an ethnic Russian, is part of the Russian Troll Army.  No one big, just a glorified foot soldier out there pushing Russian Active Measures, pushing Putin’s agenda, whether she knows it or not.  More likely than not, she knows what she’s doing.

Not all of the trolls are computer algorithms or neckbeards in Moscow or St. Petersburg.  Some of them are here, real people, in America.

 

That’s it for today.  200 posts on this site, and what better way to hit that milestone than with confirmation that the President of the United State is a subject in a criminal conspiracy.

Because of this, we are officially in historical territory.  The only other time that a sitting President was ever the subject of a criminal investigation was Nixon with Watergate, and even that could be debated, as his impeachment was scheduled before the investigation wrapped up.

Also, this interview was a month ago, in early March, when the two teams were negotiating an interview.  Daily Check-In 03/15/2018 mentioned Trump’s team being served with a subpoena for documents from Trump Org, and later that month, Jon Dowd quit on Daily Check-In 03/22/2018.

We’re fast approaching the end of the act.  Either Trump will agree to an interview, he’ll be summoned before a Grand Jury, or Mueller will decide that he doesn’t need his testimony.  Once that occurs, my guess is that we’ll see things get crazy from there on out.  I don’t know how or what form exactly things will take, but once the Trump Interview is out of the way, we enter the next phase.  The arrest for obstruction and investigate the criminals and traitors phase.

I want to give my sincere thanks to everyone who reads this site, both in real time as this unfolds, and anyone reading from after this clusterfuck unravels.

Muchos gracias, dhanyavad, merci beaucoup, Danke, tack, grazie, domo arigato, shukraan, Dziekuje Ci, dank je.

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

 

 

 

 

Daily Check-In 04/02/2018

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

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

This is how a criminal acts.

 

SINCLAIR PROPAGADANA AND ATTEMPTS AT STATE RUN MEDIA

 

 

CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA AND FACEBOOK

 

 

#NEVERAGAIN

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

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

 

 

RED STATE TEACHER STRIKES

 

 

SAY GOODBYE TO THE ECONOMY

 

 

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

 

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

 

STORMYWATCH, FROM THE STORMCENTER 6000 METEOROPORNOLOGICAL CENTER

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

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

 

CAN WE GET BACK TO POLITICS?

 

RUMOR MILL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur