2017

George Carlin is my favorite comedian of all time. I can only imagine how he would react to the news of this era.

LAWMAKERS RELEASE RUSSIAN ADS

The Washington Post has a great write-up of the ads paid for by Russia during, and after the campaign. I’ve seen quite a few of these during the election.

Some of these are downright insidious, others are more tongue in cheek dick moves. Photoshopping Aziz Ansari with some tricks to suppress voter turnout is obviously bad, but I have to admit that I appreciate the brazen dickishness of organizing an Anti-Muslim rally and a Pro-Muslim rally at the same place and time. It’s a recipe for chaos.

TRUMP TEAM DIDN’T TURN DOWN IDEA OF MEETING WITH RUSSIA

George Papadopoulos said that Trump didn’t turn down the idea of meeting Russia to get the stolen mails from HRC.

Holy. Fucking. Shit. How many crimes were broken?

There’s not reporting contacts with a foreign power, seeking stolen goods, benefiting from hacking, partaking in espionage. And that’s just off the top of my head.

TRUMP READY TO THROW KUSHNER UNDER THE BUS

Things are looking pretty gloomy in Trumpistan. The indictments have hit them pretty hard, no matter how much bluster they show. Manafort ties directly to Trump, they have a Very long history,according to Paul’s daughter. George Papadopoulos ties to Paul, and to Multiple heads of state.

But George is just one cooperating witness. There are multiple accounts of several people that have flipped, from Sam Clovis to Mike Flynn. All of whom have a direct line to Donald Trump.

Three big takeaways.

Trump blames Kushner for this whole mess because Trump fired Comey at his recommendation.

Steve Bannon does not believe that Trump could survive an Impeachment vote.

Bannon is still in contact with Trump, in violation of Federal law. Senior White House officials are not allowed to contact the President for a year following their leaving to avoid improperly lobbying the President. This could be added to Bannon’s list of crimes.

MORE INFORMATION ON MANAFORT COMES TO LIGHT

Since Paul Manafort was the first big name arrested, we’re in for some doozies.

Paul Manafort approached a Public Relations group to lobby for his Ukraine interests, and wanted to pay them from his Cyprus accounts.

Manafort’s daughter texts secrets to friends that incriminate Paul.

Ukraine wants a piece of him.

WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL BOARD GOES BATSHIT CRAZY, FIGHTING WITH JOURNALISTS ENSUES

Vanity Fair is on point today.

I mentioned yesterday on how all of Rupert Murdoch’s properties are doing a full-court press against Mueller, trying to defend Trump. This isn’t sitting well with the Journalists breaking the stories about the collusion, like the Peter Smith saga.

They are afraid that these actions are hurting the credibility of the paper.

I’m wondering if we’ll see a full blown revolt at Fox News or the Wall Street Journal soon.

That’s it for today. Something big is coming Friday. Trump starts his Asian trip, and as soon as that plane goes wheels up, expect WaPo, NYT, or someone else to drop a bombshell. One rumor is that Mike Flynn flipped, and that’s coming out like Kevin Spacey. Well, maybe not with the sexual harassment part. That’s for other members of the Trump Administration.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 10/31/2017

Happy Halloween!

Today feels like the calm before the storm. A ton of things happened yesterday, so today feels like the day after a party. The house is a mess, someone set a chair on fire, and some random guy is sleeping in the bathtub.

PAPADOPOULOS: TRUMP CAMPAIGN APPROVED TRIP TO RUSSIA

Bloomberg has the story about how the Trump Campaign approved a trip to Moscow with low level staffers to meet with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, per George Papadopoulos. This refers to the trip that Carter Page took to Moscow that is referred to in the Steele Dossier.

Trump has already tried distancing himself from Papadopoulos. Just like he has done with Manafort, Flynn, Sessions, Carter Page, and eventually his own children.

George pled guilty on October 5th for lying to an FBI Investigator, and has been a cooperating witness since July, including wearing a wire.

If a man is willing to wear a wire to avoid serious time in Federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison, then handing over emails is a foregone conclusion.

ADD SAM CLOVIS TO THE COOPERATING WITNESS LIST

Sam Clovis is working with Mueller. He’s also Working with the Senate Intelligence Committee.

UKRAINE BELIEVES THAT MANAFORT DID MORE THAN JUST MONEY LAUNDERING

The Daily Beast goes into great detail about Manafort’s connections in Ukraine.

They have him on war crimes, everything from theft, money laundering, election fraud, accessory to murder, and more.

They want his ass. If he’s lucky, he might get a show trial before his execution.

RIGHT WING MEDIA TRYING TO PLAY DOWN INDICTMENTS, EMBARRASSING EMPLOYEES AT FOX NEWS

Out of all the reactions, ignoring and attacking looks like the plan for the right wing media.

Employees at Fox News are embarrassed by what the channel aired in response to the indictments.

“It’s an embarrassment,” another Fox News employee echoed to CNN. “Frankly, there are shows on our network that are backing the President at all costs, and it’s that short term strategy that undermines the good work being done by others.”

SPEED ROUND!!!

HOPE HICKS,WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR TO BE INTERVIEWED BY MUELLER

MANAFORT’S DAUGHTER TEXTED FRIEND ABOUT HER DAD, HELPED GIVE ACCESS TO TRUMP

TRUMP IS SEETHING MAD, SO MAD HE ASKS WHAT IS A SEALED INDICTMENT.

HOW GAMERGATE IS CONNECTED TO THE ALT-RIGHT

BANNON URGES ACTION AGAINST MUELLER

36,000 MORE TWITTER ACCOUNTS WERE RUSSIAN, TWITTER TELLS CONGRESS

That’s it for today. It’s a little short, but after a 2.5 mile trick or treating trek tonight, I truly, totally, need to take a trip to talk to Terry and Tony on the trolley to the town of Torpidity.

I need to sleep.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 10/30/2017

Monday.

PAUL MANAFORT, RICK GATES TURN THEMSELVES IN TO THE FBI FOR VARIOUS TAX AND MONEY LAUNDERING RELATED ISSUES.

This may be my new desktop at work. 🙂

Paul Manafort, and his assistant Rick Gates, turned themselves in this morning to the FBI. Paul’s history is well documented on this blog, but Rick caught me off guard. He’s been a lesser name in this whole mess, being Paul’s assistant in Davis Manafort, a senior member of the Trump Inauguration Committee, and the aide to billionaire Tom Barrack.

They turned themselves in to the FBI this morning, and were charged on a dozen indictments, mostly related to tax evasion, money laundering, and failure to register as foreign agents. The scariest sounding one is Conspiracy against the United States, though that is more or less another way of nailing them for tax charges.

Reactions from all over were visceral, with people taking to Twitter, Reddit, and other Social Media today to express their relief that justice, though slow, is moving in the right direction.

Per Steve Reilly from USA Today, the D.C. District Court, where these indictments were executed from, has 4 more “Sealed vs. Sealed” case dockets between number 17-182 (See Next Section for details on George Papadopoulos) and 17-201 (Manafort). 185, 190, 198, and 200 are still sealed. It’s a little bit of a logical leap that these are related cases, but it’s a safe one to make.

Just to show how good Mueller’s team of lawyers are, they were able to successfully petition the court to compel Manafort’s former attorney to testify against him, by arguing that the attorney-client privilege can be waived by the court in the case of a crime of fraud. It was pretty ballsy, and it worked.

Bail was set at $10 million for Manafort, and $5 million for Gates. Keep in mind, bail can only be paid with legally begotten funds, and one of the punishments of money laundering and these other crimes is asset forfeiture.

Might explain why Paul Manafort had a public defender.

The Trump team was very quick to throw Manafort under the bus, saying that he was a bad person when he came in, was bad when he left, and that none of these charges were related directly to the Russia Investigation. Sean Hannity and some other Right Wing Media talking heads joined in the clarion call.

That chorus lasted all of about five minutes, until the news about George Papodopoulos broke.

GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS ARRESTED IN JULY, PLED GUILTY IN OCTOBER. WAS COOPERATING WITNESS SINCE HIS ARREST.

Third man in from the left is George Papadopoulos, a 30 year old member of Donald Trump’s campaign, and a senior member of his National Security Task Force.

This picture was taken on March 31, 2016 in the Trump Hotel International in Washington, D.C., and was later put on Trump’s Twitter and Instagram, sans names. A picture with names labeled like this is never good.

George lied to the FBI earlier this year to the FBI about the timing of when he received mails from Russia, and lied about trying to set up a meeting between the Russians and the Trump Campaign.

He was arrested July 27th, and pled guilty on October 5th to a charge of lying to the FBI. He has been a cooperating witness ever since. He gave Mueller all of his mails, all of his files, all of his contacts.

He wore a wire. Anyone that talked to him since July is on tape with the FBI.

Sleep tight, Corey.

TWO COMPANIES IMPLICATED IN MANAFORT INDICTMENT ARE MERCURY PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND PODESTA GROUP

Two companies were named in the indictment as places that worked with Paul Manafort to spread their messages, Mercury Public Affairs and Podesta Group.

Tony Podesta, head of the Pedesta Group and brother of John Podesta, Hilary Clinton’s former Campaign Manager, left his company today.

FACEBOOK SHOWED RUSSIAN CONTENT TO 126 MILLION AMERICANS DURING THE ELECTION

It wasn’t just paid advertising that the Russians used to spread propaganda. They also released thousands of pieces of free information which was shared freely across the web. All in all, this was seen by 126 million Americans.

RUPERT MURDOCH OWNED OUTLETS GO FULL TRUMP TODAY

At this point, it’s no longer a question of if Rupert Murdoch is in deep shit, but how deep it is. Fox News, Fox Business, New York Post, even the Wall Street Journal are joining in to the coordinated circle jerk in an attempt to distract his viewers from the impending storm.

A couple months back, I talked about rumors from Louise and others about how Fox News was under FBI investigation for their role in spreading propaganda. Later, a lawsuit came out alleging that the White House had coordinated stories with Fox News about the Seth Rich killing, right as Robert Mueller was appointed as the Special Counselor.

At this point, Rupert knows he’s screwed. Fox News had the chance months ago to either be a news organization that could own up to their role in things, or become state run propaganda. They chose the latter. Time will show they choose…poorly.

KUSHNER DELETES TWITTER, TAKES UNANNOUNCED TRIP TO SAUDI ARABIA, MARYLAND WANTS A PIECE OF HIM

Is it any shock that over the weekend, after news of the indictments came out, that Jared Kushner deleted his twitter account, and took an unannounced trip to Saudi Arabia, under the pretense of securing financing for his 666 Fifth Avenue building?

By the way, Saudi Arabia does not have an extradition treaty with the United States, but we do have a crap ton of soldiers there, many of whom are experts in capturing and retrieving persons of interest.

Speaking of interest, Maryland wants to ask him a few questions regarding his shady business practices as a glorified slum-lord. Jared has a bad habit of suing his tenants for small, insignificant things like complaining when their buildings flood, or coming after him for not paying his bills and the sewage gets shut off.

Remember, state charges cannot be pardoned by a President.

TRUMP MEETS WITH PENCE AND SESSIONS FOR LUNCH DAY OF FIRST PUBLIC INDICTMENTS

One way to deal with the impending doom and destruction is to have lunch with the Vice President and Attorney General.

Trump has two moves left in his arsenal, and that is to fire Mueller and pardon everyone. Neither move will be successful, and will end his presidency sooner rather than later. I’ve already described in Pardon Limitations why this won’t work, but it’s his only move left to keep everyone from flipping against him. He is the big fish. George is a minnow.

SPEAKING OF FOOD, RUMOR HAS IT TRUMP STRESS EATS

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Last night, I saw a similar rumor that Trump had ordered the entire menu from Olive Garden over the weekend and was stress eating. I shrugged it off, but at this point I wouldn’t be surprised. Multiple insider accounts corroborated these stories.

It would really suck if he died of a heart attack before he can be tried for espionage and treason, which are capital offenses and carry the death penalty.

PUERTO RICO CANCELLED WHITEFISH CONTRACT, FBI BEGINS INVESTIGATION

The Washington Post reports earlier today that the territory of Puerto Rico has cancelled the contract between their electric utility and Whitefish, the two-man company from Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke’s hometown.

To make things even more interesting, the FBI has begun an investigation into this contract, to see if there was any impropriety.

ORRIN HATCH, TREY GOWDY, BOTH CALL TO ALLOW MUELLER TO DO HIS JOB

Senator Orrin Hatch, President Pro Tempre of the Senate called for calmer heads to prevail, and let Robert Mueller do his job. In a separate statement, Trey Gowdy, a long time Trump supporter, receiver of dubiously timed donations, and new head of the House Ethics Committee, also called for everyone to back off and let Mueller do his job.

What I find interesting is Trey saying this, not Orrin. I’ve suspected for a while that Trey is under investigation, and is up to his eyeballs in some crap. Him coming out and saying this tells me that he doesn’t want to be seen as a co-conspirator, or at least wants to distance himself from Trump.

That’s it for today. It was a crazy day, let’s see where tomorrow takes us.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Indictment Eve

I’m writing this on Sunday, October 29th, 2017, at around 8pm EST.

On a Sunday Night.

Normally, on Sunday Night, I would write about one of the hundred or so ideas I’ve got on the list, like about the red herring of voter fraud or life in the echo chamber, but tonight is different.

On Friday, just as I was wrapping up the Daily Check-In 10/27/2017, news came that indictments were coming in from Mueller’s team, and could be executed as early as Monday.

That’s tomorrow.

Tonight is the night before indictments could be served. Indictment Eve.

Quick refresher: an indictment is when a Grand Jury returns a recommendation that there is probable cause that a crime was committed. This recommendation is then given to the prosecutor of the case, usually a District Attorney or Assistant DA, and they’ll coordinate either with Law Enforcement to arrest the target of the indictment, or work with the target themselves to broker a deal, like a plea bargain or become a witness in a larger crime.

There are indictments, as a direct result of the Russian Investigation.

But what’s going to happen? Let me run through a few ideas, about what I think will happen, what won’t happen, and why things are about to get really fucking weird.

OPTION 1: NOTHING HAPPENS TOMORROW

I don’t think this will actually be the case, but I’ve gotten used to disappointment in my life. When my hopes get raised, they have a bad habit of getting crushed.

I’m afraid that this could be a repeat of the Dan Rather Disinformation Op that ended his career at CBS. He had a sure-fire story about how George W. Bush abused the system to avoid going to combat in Vietnam, but it turned out that the story he ran with was a fake. That fake killed any and all chances of anyone else reporting on W’s Vietnam history, even though there was a legit story there.

OPTION 2: ONE OR TWO KNOWN NAMES GET TAGGED

There’s been talk for months about Paul Manafort being indicted, and Mike Flynn was the first name to get everything going with his Turkish and Russian connections. Roger Stone completely lost his shit on Twitter this weekend, resulting in a ban, and Carter Page is the Sheldon Cooper of treason.

In a traditional investigation, arrests would be made of the small fish, and they would be turned to get the bigger fish. While those names are some pretty big fish, they are bass. Mueller wants a whale.

OPTION 3: TRICKLE-DOWN INDICTMENTS

Notice what I said in that last paragraph, “In a traditional investigation.” This is nowhere near traditional. There is a good chance that Donald Trump will try to pardon those around him, try to pardon himself, and fire the team bringing the indictments.

One way to prevent those from happening is to indict Donald Trump right off the bat for Obstruction of Justice. Multiple indictments can be unsealed at different times, but there’s more than enough evidence, just from Open Source Intelligence (OSINT, think the press and what can be Googled), to bring Obstruction charges against him.

Doing this would not only tie his tiny little hands on using pardons, and give Congress a reason to bring Impeachment charges immediately, but any actions taken to fire Mueller would be immediately seen as criminal.

OPTION 4: THE FLOODGATES OPEN

Louise Mensch has a great write-up on many of the actors involved, and what they’re being investigated for. And that’s not even a complete list of all the rumors, whispers, and stories that have floated around that I’ve seen over the last several months. That’s not including staff members who are in hot water like Hope Hicks, Sean Spicer, Sarah Huckabee-Sanders, or Wilbur Ross, or half the cabinet members who are up to their necks in their own scandals.

Serving indictments to the President, VP, SecState, SecTreasury, Speaker of the House, Senate Majority Leader, two White House staffers that are children of the President, and several staffers and support personnel at once would be completely unprecedented.

Then again, so is a person winning the Presidency with the help of the Russians.

THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND

If anyone takes any unexpected trips or travels this week, Like Jared Kushner taking an unannounced trip to Saudi Arabia, should have an eye kept on it. Might be nothing, but then again, it’s Indictment Eve. The night of the year when emergency trips are made, passports are frozen, and warrants for arrest are made to people leaving their families behind.

I wouldn’t be surprised if there is an early morning raid on Monday. This whole investigation has looked like a crime family going down, not like a bunch of bank executives going down for embezzlement. @lauferlaw and @Alt_Spicerlies brought this idea up a few moments ago, and the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Scooter Libby didn’t get a perp walk, and most of the people arrested in Watergate were given the chance to turn themselves in. I doubt that same courtesy will be given to most of the members from Team Trump.

Also, here’s my weirdest prediction for this whole affair. Someone, I’m not sure but I’m thinking Carter Page or one of Pence’s staffers, will pull an will pull an R. Budd Dwyer at a press conference, and it won’t even be the craziest thing that happens that day.

Don’t be surprised if this whole thing spreads across all of Washington. People all over the place are going down. 2017 has been pretty fucking weird so far, and the people I mentioned above inferred that others might be implicated that we never heard of, especially some Democrats in power.

Finally, expect Trump to try to fire Mueller in some kind of Hail Mary move to save his ass. And it expect it to fail. There are two ways he can try this. The first would be to fire Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein as Deputy Attorney General, Dana Boente, and all the way down to Rachel Brand, or further if she won’t fire Mueller. The second way would be to fire Jeff Sessions, and immediately try naming a current member of the Cabinet to replace him, bypassing the Senate confirmation process. I highlighted that here in Lateral Movement, but I don’t think it would work. Any chance that Trump has of even trying this end around has to be done before the indictments are served. Any actions taken after Monday Morning will likely be interpreted as criminal.

This is a nation of laws, not of men, or wealth, or personality. Laws and Justice. There’s a phrase that I heard a while back, Fiat Justitia Ruat Caellum. It’s Latin for “Let Justice Be Done, Though the Heavens Fall.”

Sounds like someone’s yelling “TIMBER!”

Good night, sleep tight. Take a deep breath, things are about to get really fucking weird.