2017

Tuesday. Nothing like a Tuesday.

PER WALL STREET JOURNAL, SOME OF DONALD TRUMPS LAWYERS WANTED KUSHNER GONE

According to this article from last night, some of Donald Trump’s lawyers wanted to remove Jared Kushner from his position in the White House earlier this year. They even went as far as to write a resignation letter for him. The lawyers felt that Jared’s presence in the White House distracted from achieving any of Trump’s agenda, while reminding everyone of the impending doom of the Russian Investigation.

In any nominally functional White House, Jared wouldn’t have even gotten in through the front door, let alone continue to have a position after falsely submitting and editing his SF-86 FOUR TIMES. But, if this were any other staffer, Jared would have been fired as soon as the lawyers came calling. The fact that he’s still there shows how out of touch with reality the Trump team is.

POTUS ATTEMPTS END AROUND OF MAGNITSKY ACT

From Friday’s news dump, the White House released a statement, moving authorization of adding and removing names from the Magnitsky Act list to the Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin.

Rex, the recipient of the Order of Friendship from Vladimir Putin, and former CEO of Exxon, is more than just a little compromised. Steve, the former hedge fund manager, might be slightly less compromised per Russia, but is just as dirty.

This is an obvious end-around to avoid the strengthened sanctions that Congress instituted at the beginning of August. I expect this to get slapped down in the courts.

TRUMP CAMPAIGN DELIVERING MATERIALS TO MUELLER’S TEAM

According to a reporter on Twitter who’s name I can’t find, she has reported that John Dowd told her that he is delivering documents about the Trump Campaign to Robert Mueller’s team.

Not only is this big, but shows that this investigation isn’t going away any time soon. No matter what Trump wants to happen. According to the Rogue Senior Advisor, Trump fired a low-level staffer today just for saying Mueller’s team. The stress is getting to the orange monster.

RT MUST REGISTER AS A FOREIGN AGENT

RT, formerly Russia Today, must register as foreign agents under FARA. Daily Check-In 9/11/2017 had an in-depth write-up of FARA, and how big of a deal this is. I expect Sputnik to join that list very soon.

RUSSIA ATTEMPTED TO NORMALIZE RELATIONS EARLIER THIS YEAR WITH TRUMP ADMINISTRATION, PER BUZZFEED

Buzzfeed has broken this story earlier today about the detailed plans that Russia had for the United States and the Trump organization following the election.

Hole. Lee. Shite.

The plan from Russia was full-blown normalization, complete with sharing intelligence, setting up cyber defense teams, having the CIA/FBI/NSA work with their Russian counterparts, and a complete and total change of geopolitics to a very Pro-Russian stance. It also included the completion of the Syrian Civil War, the denuclearization of North Korea, the “resolution” of Ukraine, and the elimination of sanctions against Russia.

This isn’t a plan for what to do after the election, this was an agenda for a puppet government. This was Russia dictating terms to the United States.

Of course, this operated under the assumption that the President of the United States had no checks and balances on them. Putin can run roughshod over Russia. The American President can’t.

If this is accurate, and the White House did verify the authenticity of the document, this is a step by step plan of how to implement the American part of Foundations of Geopolitics.

Plus, if they could do all of these things like keep North Korea from getting nukes, why haven’t they done so to this point? It’s almost like they benefit from the current atmosphere.

VIRGINIA DROPS TOUCH SCREEN VOTING MACHINES

The Virginia Board of Electors voted Friday Night to phase out their touch screen voting machines in favor of optical scans. Remember the bubble sheets from standardized testing as a kid? They’re coming back in Virginia.

This is what America needs right now. The touch screens typically used have no paper trail. are extremely vulnerable, and often built on antiquated systems. One of the big problems from the election last year was the lack of an audit trail on most machines. While I haven’t heard too many Intel people admit to votes being switched in voting machines, it was shown at Defcon this year that the voter machines have nearly no security on them.

The faster this country adopts proper voter reform, the better.

KOBACH AND PENCE TO PUSH VOTER SUPPRESSION AGENDA

Mother f… what did I just say? PROPER voter reform. Not this “only white people can vote” bullshit.

The latest craziness from the “Voter Integrity Commission” is to have all voters undergo a background check before voting. The same background check needed to purchase a handgun. These pricks don’t even believe in having people go through this check to buy guns.

This is nothing more than their attempt at putting into effect across the country the crap that disenfranchises voters across the country. This is not democracy. They are enemies of freedom and liberty.

I’m going to step down from the ledge now. I’ll picture happy thoughts, like Ted Cruz getting busted for liking a not-bad-at-all porn clip on Twitter.

Thank you, and have a good one.

Daily Check-In 9/11/2017

It’s Monday. Time for another installment of “What the Hell is going on?”

STEVE BANNON INTERVIEW ON 60 MINUTES

Steve Bannon, former White House Strategist and CEO of Breitbart, was interviewed on 60 Minutes last night. I didn’t get a chance to watch the whole thing, but in the interview with Charlie Rose, Bannon said that Trump’s biggest mistake was firing Comey. Had he not fired Comey, then the intensity of the Russian Investigation would have been a fraction of what it is today.

While there is some merit to this train of thought, the FBI had been investigating Trump for almost a year when Comey was fired. Within a week of Comey’s firing, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had named Robert Mueller as the Special Counselor. That move was planned ahead of time, in my opinion. Firing Comey just made Trump look even guiltier.

McGAHN, PREIBUS GO HALFSIES ON THE SAME LAWYER

Don McGahn, White House Counsel, and Reince Preibus, former White House Chief of Staff, are the newest people to lawyer up. This time, they both went with the same lawyer, William Burck. Burck specializes in White Collar crime, and is from the Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan law firm.

I haven’t taken an official count yet, but this is now like 15 or 20 people that have lawyered up, including 2 attorneys. When your lawyer needs a lawyer, shit’s gone sideways.

FBI INVESTIGATING SPUTNIK AS PROPAGANDA ARM OF RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT

Per Yahoo today, the FBI is investigating Sputnik for claims that they are acting as a propaganda arm of the Russian government, and used their position as a news outlet to push stories that would affect how people viewed the election. These claims came from two former employees of Sputnik in the U.S., one of whom was the former White House correspondent. They both claim that they were asked to perform unethical, and possibly illegal activities, in order to push the narrative that “Moscow” wanted. A thumb drive containing thousands of mails and documents was handed over to the FBI on September 1.

I mean, it’s only one of the two Russian State Sponsored Media Outlets that has an English audience. It’s not like RT is being called a propaganda machine by the United States Government and it’s employees in the U.S. are being told to register under FARA.

UNITED STATES CITIZENS WORKING FOR RT (FORMERLY RUSSIA TODAY) ADVISED TO REGISTER FOR FARA

Well, shit. Newsweek reports that the U.S. Department of Justice has asked people associated with the American arm of RT, formerly Russia Today, to register as foreign agents under the FARA act. The DOJ and the FBI are claiming that RT is using its position as a news outlet controlled by Russia to push propaganda and… look, did you read the last section about Sputnik? Good.

RT and Sputnik are the two largest Russian media outlets, and are run and funded by the Putin controlled government. Whatever message he wants to tell, they’ll tell. They reach all of Russia, and have multiple operations around the world, including here in the United States.

FARA is the Foreign Agent Registration Act. It was enacted in 1938 as a method to ostensibly stope Nazi propaganda from being circulated in the United States, but has a more interesting unofficial use. John Schindler of 20 Committee has a great writeup if I can find it, but the unofficial reason is that top secret wiretaps are inadmissible as evidence in a court of law without exposing the chain of custody, the methods used to gain the information, and the people involved. This was a problem that faced J. Edgar Hoover in the 1930’s, when he caught some Nazis doing some Nazi stuff in the U.S. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a warrant for his phone taps, and couldn’t get one.

Congress came to the rescue with FARA. By requiring people who work for foreign governments to register as agents and disclose what they do, this helps the government identify when someone is pushing someone else’s agenda instead giving an impartial account of the events. If someone lobbies on behalf of another government, they have to register with FARA. If they don’t register with FARA, and they’re caught working with or for another government, this is another, much easier to prove charge that can be thrown at them.

Seldomly is FARA used by itself as a criminal charge, but its often used in conjunction with other crimes when it comes time to charge a spy. If someone is caught working for another government, the courts will often grant leniency or at least take it into consideration at sentencing if someone retroactively registers with FARA. Two recent examples are Mike Flynn and Paul Manafort. They both recently registered as foreign agents, and disclosed several meetings and sources of income officially.

The FBI has a long history of not getting involved with calling out foreign media outlets as propaganda machines, out of fear of trampling over the first amendment rights of the outlets, and to avoid some serious lawsuits. The FBI and DOJ wouldn’t make these moves unless they had something big. Something ironclad and airtight.

I MET CLAUDE

On a lighter note, I met Claude Taylor yesterday. We went to A Fair in the Park, an Art Show in Mellon Park. He was nice, and I was slightly awkward, not trying to come off as too much of a fan boy. Part of the reason I started this blog was to try and keep track of all of the craziness going around. Especially if a story broke on Twitter first, then came to the MSM, and he was one of the people to break it. He’s not always right, but he’s been more accurate than a coin flip.

Claude is going through some legal problems right now. A woman called Cassandra Fairbanks has sued Claude for defamation of character for calling her a spy, a foreign agent, and a cam girl. Given that she’s worked as a correspondent for Sputnik, has infiltrated left-wing groups like Anonymous and various Anarchist groups, then spilled the beans to law enforcement, the only claim that hasn’t been confirmed on Twitter recently was the cam girl part, but supposedly she’s done enough so that if you google her, you can find her boobs pretty quick. She helped inspire Horseshoe Theory by being the poster girl for the Bernie or Bust people that went full Trump after the DNC. Whether or not she went to the other side of the horseshoe naturally, or was paid to, that’s worth looking in to.

REMINDER ABOUT 9/11 AND TRUMP

Today is the 16th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack on the United States. Just in case anyone forgets, Donald Trump is a piece of shit. He has lied repeatedly about seeing Muslims cheering in New Jersey, claimed damages on one of his properties that wasn’t affected, and bragged about how after the towers fell, one of his buildings was now the tallest in New York.

That’s it for today. Other things happened, but I don’t want to write about them. Irma’s impact is still being measured, and the DOJ’s attempt at getting Arpaio’s conviction overturned looks like it should be a non-starter. An angry non-starter, but a non-starter nonetheless.

Thank you, and have a good one.

Daily Check-In 9/7/2017

Thursday. Never a dull moment.

DONNIE JR GOES TO THE SENATE

Donald Trump, Jr., testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in a closed session for five hours today. Five hours of answering questions about the June 9 meeting in Trump Tower.

Quick recap. Don Jr. worked with Rob Goldstone and Emin Agarolov to set up a meeting with Russians who promised to deliver dirt on HRC. At first, Don Jr. claimed it didn’t happen. Then it did, but only 4 people were there, including Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort. Then there were 5 people. Then 6, 7, and 8. And it was about adoptions. Then sanctions. Then getting dirt on HRC. Then about her fitness.

Following the testimony, Senator Chris Coons, D of Delaware, sent out the statutes relating to lying to Congress in testimony.

MUELLER WANTS INFORMATION FROM WHITE HOUSE STAFFERS ON TRUMP’S ROLE ON THE STATEMENT ON BEHALF

OF HIS SON ON THE JUNE 9TH MEETING

Remember back in July when news of the June 9 meeting broke, and everyone kept their mouth shut but Don Jr.? Good. Remember how it came out that Donald Trump, Sr. wrote the press releases? Guess who wants to talk to the White House staff members about that weekend?

Robert Fucking Mueller. I don’t think that’s his real middle name, but there are certainly people out there who think it is.

Claiming to have no knowledge of a meeting that took place with representatives of a foreign power in a building with your name on it, a couple floors beneath you, and your son, son-in-law, and long time advisor are in attendance when you’re known as a micromanager is pretty dubious. Claiming that after writing a press release for your son is just flat out lying.

TWITTER RELEASES INFO ON RUSSIAN ACTIONS

Twitter announced today, on the heels of Facebook yesterday, that they will release their internally collected information about how the Russians used its service during the 2016 election. I look forward to hearing more about this.

FBI RESPONDS TO FOIA REQUEST ABOUT BREITBART, HAS 1475 DOCUMENTS. RELEASED 23.

According to Law Newz , the FBI responded to a Freedom of Information Act request in regards to Breitbart. The FBI has 1,475 documents related to them. 23 are able to be released.

Doing the math, that’s 1,452 documents that are classified for one reason or another.

There are a few reasons that these documents can’t be released, like privacy, so jumping to the conclusion that there is an active investigation into them wouldn’t be the only reason that there is a ton of information on them.

But, if I had to put money on it, the FBI has been investigating Breitbart for some time.

Maybe they know why Breitbart has Yandex code in their home page code.

Photo courtesy of @Countercheckist

As I’m wrapping this up, I see that the 9th Circuit Court struck down a few parts on the Muslim Travel Ban. I’ll add more about that tomorrow.

Thank you, and have a good one.

Daily Check-In 9/6/2017

HSIOW. Holy Shit, it’s Only Wednesday.

Today has been especially crazy.

FACEBOOK SOLD RUSSIAN ADS DURING CAMPAIGN

This is big. Huge. Per the Washington Post, Facebook sold campaign ads to a Russian organization. They claim that $100k was spent by at least 470 fraudulent accounts.

It’s been assumed so for over a year, but having them say so to a Senate Committee makes it an even bigger deal than anyone knew.

DAILY CALLER CALLING IT – PAUL MANAFORT WILL BE INDICTED

The Daily Caller released a report that aides inside the White House believe that Manafort is screwed.

Why is this news?

The Daily Caller is a very partisan, right wing site. This would be like ShareBlue or HuffPo saying HRC was guilty of some evil email stuff.

TRUMP OPENLY ACCEPTING BRIBES VIA GOLF COURSE

USA Today did a ton of groundwork tying together foreign diplomats, lobbyists, and federal contractors to golf trips at Donald Trump’s courses while he was there, and that they were seeking favors from the President.

The President is openly accepting bribes. The fact that this isn’t the biggest story of the year just shows how fucked up things really are right now.

HURRICANE IRMA RAMPING UP

Irma is currently a Category 5, and is hitting Puerto Rico tonight. It’s anticipated to hit Florida on Friday.

TRUMP BACKS DEMOCRATIC DEAL ON HARVEY RELIEF, DEBT CEILING

This one is weird. Trump sided with the Democrats today on Harvey relief and the Debt Ceiling deal. I have two ideas why.

First, Trump is mad at McConnell and wants to spite him.

Second, he thinks doing this deal with Chuck Schumer will get them to stop the Russian investigation.

This may be the dumbest thing he’s done. Until tomorrow. Who knows what stupidity will happen then.

FALLOUT FROM DACA

Following the DACA rescinding, 15 states, and several companies, are suing the President. Leading the charge is New York AG Eric Schneiderman. This isn’t by coincidence. Schneiderman is working with Mueller to deliver a Fuck-Your-Pardon Sandwich with a side of RICO Fries to Donald Trump.

Shits getting interesting. Something big is coming tomorrow.

If it feels like this has been a constant drip of information, I think it’s intentional. I’ll write about why this weekend.

Thank you, and have a good one.