Nancy

Documentation. Witnesses. Facts. Truth. That's what they're afraid of.

Saturday, July 21, 2018

Reading It So You Don't Have To: The Carter Page Warrants




Thread by @tgconsolidation: "@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 Yeah. I was going to live tweet my reading of it, but it hardly seems worth it. @DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 […]" #Candidate1 #YESCOLLUSION #CandidateOne #CANDIDATEONESDAUGHTER



48 tweets2 hours ago
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@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 Yeah. I was going to live tweet my reading of it, but it hardly seems worth it.
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 But holy fuck: "the FBI believes that the Russian Government's efforts to influence the 2016 Presidential election were being coordinated with Page and perhaps other individuals associated with Candidate #1's campaign..." #Candidate1 #YESCOLLUSION
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 "As discussed below, Page has established relationships with Russian Government officials, including Russian intelligence officers..."
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 "from approximately 2004-2007, Page lived in Russia... during this time, Page began business dealings with Gazprom... According to information provided by Page during a... interview with the FBI... Page... " Tease!
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 I think this is stuff we haven't seen before: Three Russian agents who were charged in Jan 2015 by a sealed complaint for being agents of Russia. One was undercover as an employee in the Manhattan branch of a Russian bank. They were attempting to recruit NYCers as sources.
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 "Page's Coordination with Russian Government Officials on 2016 U.S. Presidential Influence Activies." The FBI was monitoring him on a trip to Russia in July 2016.
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 Whoa: the information came from "Source #1," who, from context is clearly Christopher Steele! The FBI says it compensated him but suspended its relationship with him in October 2016 for leaking to the press.
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 However, the FBI said they believe his reporting to be "credible."
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 Hello, Dossier! Hello, Pee Pee Tape!
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 "... during the meeting, Page and Sechin discussed future bilateral energy cooperation and the prospects for an associated move to lift Ukraine-related Western sanctions against Russia." Tit, meet tat.
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 Boy, did Page meet with a lot of Russians who were close to Putin during the campaign. Whoda thunk it?
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 This might be bigger than the Butina drop, and I'm only a quarter of the way through.
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 The warrant goes on to cite articles that say that Trump (Candidate #1) softened the RNC's platform toward Ukraine and that after that, "while the reason for Candidate #1's shirt was not clear, [Trump's] more conciliatory words...
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 "which contradict Political Party #1's (guess who?) official platform, follow Candidate #1's recent association with several people sympathetic to Russian influence in Ukraine, including foreign policy advisor Carter Page." BOOM.#YESCOLLUSION Trump fucking knew.
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 "According to the September 23rd News Article, certain members of Congress were 'taken aback' after being briefed on the alleged meetings between Page and Russian officials and viewed the meetings as a possible back channel to the Russians that could undercut foreign policy."
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 I think I may now have to refer to the Dems as "certain members."
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 It then goes on to say that Steele released his info to the press because he was upset about Comey's letter and "believed it world likely influence the 2016 U.S. Presidential election." The FBI again says its relationship w/ Steele was suspended, but they believe him reliable.
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 It said Reid wrote to Comey (we know) citing "'significant and disturbing ties' between Candidate #1's campaign and the Kremlin that needed to be investigated by the FBI.
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 In response to an article from September 23rd and other articles confirming it, it says Candidate #1's campaign tried to distance itself from Page. It lists a couple of BS quotes from the campaign that, in my eyes, the FBI does not appear to believe.
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 Page then wrote back to the FBI saying it was all lies.
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 My god, if black-lined redactions could talk...
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 "Based on the foregoing facts and circumstances, the FBI submits that there is probable cause to believe that Page... knowingly engage in clandestine intelligence activities... and, therefore, is an agent of a foreign power... there is probably cause to believe..."
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 "... that such activities involve or are about to involve violations of the criminal statutes of the United States." If Page hasn't been given immunity, he's going to prison.
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 I'm wondering if he's one of Mueller's five.
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 And that this came out now as a shot across Trump's bow.
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 It's journalistic malpractice that neither CNN nor MSNBC are live and are talking about this right now.
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 "The authorities requested show not automatically terminate when... information has first been obtained.... The type of foreign intelligence information being sought and the fact that the activities of this target are ongoing preclude the conclusion, that, at a given time..."
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 "... all such information has been obtained and collection can be ended." So, the FBI is taking this case *particularly* seriously.
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 The warrant then goes on for several pages about the methods of surveillance the FBI is authorized to use on Page, but it's all redacted.
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 "... the FBI believes that the Russian government engaged in efforts to undermine and influence the outcome of the 2016 U.S. Presidential election." I believe that earlier when the document (I think I'm actually now reading a renewal), talked about those efforts...
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 ... they were saying that it was publications that were making that assertion. By this point, the FBI was making that assertion directly.
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 "On or about November 8, 2016, Candidate #1 was elected President. Although Candidate #1 is now the President... unless otherwise stated, the original references to Candidate #1 and... team will remain the same as in previous applications filed..." So it is a renewal.
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 In 9/16, Clapper gave an interview to a news organization and asserted that Russia had had a history of "interfering with elections."
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 Talks about the DNC e-mail drop and then about how Putin denied responsibility, and then says "Despite Russian's denial...." then more redactions.
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 It then talks about Jeh Johnson's October warning and the Obama administration's December 29th statement about it.
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 "Based on the Russian Government's historical efforts to influence U.S. and foreign elections, and the information discussed herein regarding Russia's coordination with Carter Page... to attempt an undermine and improperly and illegally influence the... election." #YESCOLLUSION
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 Eat that, Motherfucker. @realDonaldTrump#CandidateOne
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 @realDonaldTrump "In or about March 2016, George Papadapolous and Carter Page... were publicly identified by Candidate #1 as part of his/her foreign policy team... the FBI believes that the Russian Government's efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. Presidential election..."
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 @realDonaldTrump "... were being coordinated with Page and perhaps other individuals associated with Candidate #1's campaign." Hmmm.. Whoever this #CandidateOne is must be sweating bullets right now. "NO COLLUSION! NO COLLUSION! WHERE'S #CANDIDATEONESDAUGHTER?"
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 @realDonaldTrump Anabelle points out:



@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 @realDonaldTrump "Divyekin... had met secretly with Page and that their agenda for the meeting included Divyekin raising a dossier or "kompromat' that the Kremlin possessed on Candidate # [the good one, obvs,] and the possibility of it being released to Candidate #1's campaign." That's direct.
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 @realDonaldTrump LOL! I'm not sure if we knew this already, but in February 2017, Page sent the FBI accusing Hillary of "severe election fraud in the form of disinformation, suppression of dissent, hate crimes, and other extensive abuses."
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 @realDonaldTrump I love that. "Hate crimes." Page has decided he's a protected class.
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 @realDonaldTrump "Page further claims that the information... are lies that were completed fabricated by Candidate #2's paid consultants and private investigators." Poor widdle Carter.
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 @realDonaldTrump Onto the next warrant -- April 2017. Hey! I'm learning how to read a warrant!
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 @realDonaldTrump "... Putin said ... that Russia was not responsibile for the hack, but said that the release of the DNC documents was a net positive: 'The important thing is the content that was given to the public.'" That's some Grade A Russian trolling.
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 @realDonaldTrump Really nothing new in the final warrant, other than that McCabe signed off on it instead of Comey, who did the first three. It was also signed off on by Rosenstein.
@DemocracyJourno @worldflood1 @realDonaldTrump Anyway, the bottom line is that Mueller has all of this, including the 75% or so that's been redacted. To be a fly on the wall at Bedminster right now...
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Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Just Read It



Jonathan Chait has written the most important piece I've read on #TrumpRussia yet. The money line:

Who could believe that the world’s most powerful country was about to hand its presidency to a Russian dupe? That the United States government had, essentially, fallen?

Well, someone mainstream wrote it. But as we get ready for the Republicans to likely steal another Supreme Court seat for decades with Russian help, the question we need to ask is, "Now what?"

I haven't had time to watch any news tonight, but I'm hoping this was covered heavily, and I hope we start hearing suggested answers to that question.

Now what?
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Saturday, June 30, 2018

Families Belong Together March!



I couldn't be there myself, but here are some of the sights from around the United States:














These are the days I'm a little more optimistic.
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Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Viewing Hate from the Receiving End (Updated)

I originally posted this a week after the election in November 2016. I'm reposting now because of the Red Hen story.

Have you been the victim of a hate crime? Have you ever really experienced true hatred before? Hate is different from anger because it's irrational.  You can be angry that someone wronged you, but it would be irrational to hate whatever race or ethnicity that person belongs to because of that incident.  Or maybe you were never even wronged by an individual within the group you hate. You just "know" that they are the reason things aren't perfectly rosy around you. Experiencing hate firsthand is an indescribable feeling. You are left confused, angry, and saddened all at once. While I was a graduate student in upstate New York in 2006, a restaurant refused my partner and I service because we were an interracial couple.  Racism was one of those things that you only read about, but not really experience when you aren't black.  Yet, there it was in all of its glory just three hours west of New York City.

Lunch Counter Protesters in the 1960s

In 1991, an individual set my synagogue on fire. As a 10-year old, it was the first time I had experienced hate firsthand. Of course as a Jew, we learn about 3,200 year old Egyptian enslavement, as well as Babylonian, Persian, and Roman persecution. Most Jews probably remember learning about the 525 year old Spanish Inquisition and pogroms in Europe during the "Age of Enlightenment."  And all can probably cite how many Jews were murdered by Nazi Germany and her allies in the 1930s and 1940s.

But it's hard to really know hate until you are a target.  And while my synagogue burning down was the first time I experienced hate, I first became a target of hate in 1994 when I was in 8th grade.  I attended a typical small public suburban school much like students attend anywhere in the United States.  Mine happened to have just been named to the prestigious Federal Blue Ribbon list. Early that Spring semester I was handed a note in class (note to Millennials, this was the 20th Century's version of texting) with a crude sketch of Hitler and a box-form swastika.  A week later, my locker was vandalized with three more swastikas drawn at eye level.  My school launched a campaign to bring in a local holocaust survivor and added content to its European History curriculum.  The culprit turned himself in, apologized to me and the rest of the school and pled ignorance.  For the longest time, even as I accepted his apology, I didn't fully trust his story of ignorance. After all, I was only a few years removed from the incident at my synagogue.

I bring this up for two reasons. First, I, like most of you, did not know the first thing about different forms of the swastika (did you click that last link?). As it turns out though, with the emergence of the alt-right, we have had to deal with a lot more swastikas since President Obama was elected.  And their swastikas are different from the ones that were drawn at my school in the early 1990s.  The Nazi Swastika is drawn at a 45 degree angle. The swastikas at my school were of the garden variety found everywhere in the world up until World War II.  A real anti-Semite would probably know the difference and would have probably drawn the one that reflects hatred.  But the average American? Probably not.

Neo-Nazis Marching in Charlottesville, VA in 2017

My second point is that with the the tightening linkages between the alt-Right and the incoming Trump Administration via its chief strategist Steve Bannon, neo-Nazis have suddenly become empowered  and legitimized. So much so that they are enboldened to engage in the same type of behavior that the original Nazis engaged in when they took power.  Take a look at the swastika graffiti in North Carolina. That's no garden-variety swastika. Many believe it to have been an inside-job. But whether it was or wasn't, it is still part of the mainstreaming of hate that has been occurring at an accelerated pace over the last 18 months.

The hate I have seen this year is unparalleled by any I have seen in my lifetime. And Trump still hasn't even taken office yet.
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Positive Brain Cell Degeneration...



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All Politics is Now... International?



I've written a few times now about how interlinked all of the crap going on in the world is. The last week or so has been quite the case in point.

The Brexit "win" and Trump's "victory" go hand in hand. They were both engineered by Putin and his people, designed to destabilize the West and put people with fascist tendencies in charge everywhere. Last week, the amazing Carol Cadwalladr detailed new findings concerning the Brexiteers' and Trump's ties with Russia:

This was the campaign headed by Nigel Farage, whose close friend and ally, Steve Bannon, had been Trump’s campaign manager and who said, on Wednesday: “I have never received any Russian financial or political support...”
And it plunges Britain directly into the same nexus of relationships that is the focus of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Two years on, we are in the dark about so much. What was the exact nature of Farage’s Leave.EU campaign’s relationship to the Russian government? Why did it exist? And to what end?
Just last week, Farage robustly denied any improper relationship with the Russians on his radio show.
So far, all that we can say for sure is that, for the last two years, Banks and Wigmore have lied about it. And, it’s this, perhaps, that raises the most critical question of all: why?
A week and a half ago, a fellow journalist, Peter Jukes, showed me this material for the first time, and my jaw dropped. I’d left parliament where I’d heard Alexander Nix, the chief executive of Cambridge Analytica, give evidence to the investigation into fake news to a parliamentary inquiry over many hours. And later that night, I found myself looking at a computer screen that shone on a light on a part of the investigation that I had never expected to uncover.
But wait, there's more! Nigel Farage and pals apparently used a combination of real and fake polling to manipulate the market for the British Pound by pretending Brexit was going to fail while they knew it was likely to succeed:

Farage, who had not detailed since that night what he learned or how he knew it, told Bloomberg that the only external exit poll results he received on June 23 were Survation’s—and that Lyons-Lowe gave them to him. “He got it right,” Farage said of Lyons-Lowe. “And whoever, whichever clientele, whichever City hedge funds paid him that day, did very well out of it.” Others with knowledge of the results also said that Lyons-Lowe’s hedge fund exit poll accurately called the vote for Leave.
Farage, however, repeatedly told Bloomberg that he learned the results from Lyons-Lowe’s poll only “minutes after” Sky put his market-moving statement on the air just past 10 p.m.—not before. “That would have been, that would have been—for he and I to have spoken ahead of that 10 o’clock—would have been wrong at every level. Wrong for me, wrong for him, just would have been wrong,” Farage said. After saying he heard the results from Lyons-Lowe, Farage then changed his story, saying they came not from Lyons-Lowe personally, but from someone affiliated with Survation's operation. (In a subsequent telephone interview, Farage again changed his story to say he had indeed spoken by phone with Lyons-Lowe. He said Lyons-Lowe intimated that the U.K. had voted for Leave, but he didn’t share specific data. Farage also said that, at the time, he didn't believe what Lyons-Lowe had told him, and that another contact, whom he declined to identify, mentioned other polling showing Remain would win.)
In response to questions, Lyons-Lowe released a statement: “Survation Ltd. has established itself as a leading opinion poll and research provider, including in respect of referendums and other elections where innovative methodologies are required. We work regularly for a wide variety of newspapers, private clients and political parties. Survation Ltd. does not comment on any confidential client work.”
Farage called his statement to Sky “a terrible mistake,” but he also asserted that he did not give the network’s reporter a true concession. “It was an acceptance that we might not win, but it was hardly, but it was not how—they [Sky] overegged it. They overegged it. But that’s journalism,” he said.
What Farage could not explain, however, is why he gave a further concession about 70 minutes after the Sky broadcast, which not only echoed the statement aired on Sky, but was more adamant. In it, he also specifically cited a financial-firm exit poll as his reason for conceding.
Farage made the second concession in an interview with the Press Association, a U.K. news cooperative. Its report says: “Mr. Farage told the Press Association: ‘I don't know, but I think Remain will edge it, yes. The massive increase in voter registration will be the reason for that.’ Asked if he was just experiencing election-night jitters, the UKIP leader replied: ‘It is a calm and rational feeling. If I am wrong, I would be thrilled. But it is what we have seen out and about, and what I know from some of my friends in the financial markets who have done some big polling.’” Bloomberg sent a series of headlines from that interview to its more than 300,000 financial clients around the world.
You can bet that the Mercers, who were the money behind Cambridge Analytica, made some money off of this:


And Cambridge Analytica isn't just working in the U.S. and Great Britain:

Mexico’s ruling party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, paid Cambridge Analytica millions of dollars ahead of Sunday’s presidential election—to keep the data consulting firm out of it.
In 2017, the now-bankrupt company proposed to bolster the PRI’s candidate, José Antonio Meade, with the same tactics it deployed to promote Donald Trump during 2016 election in the US, according to a New York Times report. After considering the offer, the PRI decided it was sufficiently equipped to mess with the election itself. But it hired Cambridge Analytica anyway, to prevent it from helping the other candidates in the race, according to the newspaper. The PRI denied any involvement with the firm, according to the story.
The deal shows the PRI’s desperation in boosting its poor-performing candidate, a gray technocrat who had trouble connecting with voters. It’s also a sign of the growing importance of data mining as a voter-influencing tool—at least in politicians’ eyes. Cambridge Analytica has been active in more than 200 elections around the world, including the Brexit vote in the UK in 2016.

200 elections? Jesus Christ on a cracker.

Meanwhile, in Turkey, another one of Trump's authoritarian buddies has "won" his "election" and is set to take more power for himself:

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics for the past 15 years, will extend his rule and take on sweeping new powers after his victory in the country's landmark presidential and parliamentary elections.
Turkey's High Electoral Board on Monday declared Erdogan the winner of Sunday's dual votes, which usher in a new system in which the prime minister's post is eliminated and executive powers are transferred to the president, who rules with only limited checks and balances.
The Turkish leader is accused by critics of adopting increasingly authoritarian tactics but is loved by supporters for bringing prosperity and stability to the country that lies at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. Erdogan may be facing rough times ahead, however, because analysts predict an economic downturn for Turkey amid rising inflation and the struggling lira currency.

Trump's pretty happy about it:

DO NOT CONGRATULATE!

It's all tied together. J.J. Patrick explains:



And how and when did Putin put that plan into motion?



That's like, not ominous or anything... Not at all.

Americans are markedly provincial, but we have GOT to be paying attention to what's going on around the world -- it's all connected. Fortunately, I think Bob Mueller knows that and is trying to do more than just take out Trump. At least, I hope so.
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Thursday, June 21, 2018

Late Night Track -- Sister I Need Wine

How I'm feeling tonight...

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Monday, June 18, 2018

This Morning's Twitshit Sounded Better in the Original German

 

Haven't done one of these in a while, but I woke up to find that Hitler got a Twitter account in the eleventh level of hell:


Heil Fontange Fuhrer!
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