Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse

[Michael Scally MD]

Key point is DOJ won’t tell the WH what the issues are. In a standard background check, they do. Jared’s issues are all about the Mueller probe, and it would be inappropriate for the WH to be briefed on those.



WASHINGTON — The Justice Department informed the White House this month that there were substantial issues related to Jared Kushner that still needed to be investigated and would significantly delay a recommendation on whether he should receive a permanent security clearance, according to two people briefed on the matter.

The White House was not told what the issues were involving Mr. Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser. But the notification led White House lawyers and aides to believe that they were more problematic than the complexity of his finances and his initial failure to disclose contacts with foreign leaders — the reasons Mr. Kushner’s lawyers have said are holding up the process, the two people said.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

TODAY’S GUILTY PLEA by Rick Gates might be one of the least surprising developments in the Mueller investigation: It had been clear that the former Trump campaign aide would likely seek a deal almost since the day Gates and his business partner and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort were indicted in October, and we’ve seen reports for weeks that negotiations between Mueller and Gates have been underway.

The move does, though, apply new pressure to Manafort, who will now face in court not just the bank records that originally led to his indictment but also testimony from his former close associate and accomplice in the money-laundering scheme that allegedly involved upward of $60 million. When it comes to Manafort, Gates—who was also a Trump campaign and transition official—knows where the bodies are buried.

That only became more obvious on Thursday, when the special counsel unveiled a new set of charges against Manafort and Gates, a so-called superseding indictment that added more specifics to the money-laundering and bank fraud case brought against them in October. Coupled with the Gates plea, it’s clear that Manafort’s legal problems are likely to get much worse.

...

Last summer, I outlined 15 “known unknowns” in the Trump/Russia investigation, unanswered but knowable threads that Mueller’s team could be expected to pull on. The answers to many of those questions are still not public. Yes, we’ve received significant new information about how Dutch intelligence tipped off the US to Russia’s hacking efforts. But we’ve still not seen charges concerning active cyber intrusions—most notably, the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s computers and the stealing of Clinton campaign manager John Podesta’s emails—one of at least five related probes Mueller is leading right now.

Now, though, months of investigation—including five guilty pleas and the remaining open indictments of Paul Manafort and the 13 Russians involved in the Internet Research Agency—has provided a whole new set of “known unknowns” (a dozen of them, to be exact). Be on the lookout for some of these to become “known knowns” before long.

1. What can Paul Manafort offer Bob Mueller?

The former Trump campaign chairman is 68 years old, so even the two indictments he currently faces could result in a life sentence if he ends up heading to prison—and that’s before Gates’ testimony and any additional charges Mueller might bring. If he decides to cooperate, what can he offer Mueller, particularly on the Trump Tower meeting with Kushner, Donald Trump Jr., and Russian nationals, where Manafort evidently took copious notes? And then there’s another question, one of the most intriguing since Manafort took his unpaid role as the Trump campaign chair: Why did he get involved in the campaign in the first place? He appears to have had no shortage of reasons to stay off the radar of US authorities, so why did he put himself in such a high-profile position? Now that Gates has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge, who else knew about the conspiracy? Mueller has broad latitude to bring charges against anyone else who knew or abetted that conspiracy.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Key point is DOJ won’t tell the WH what the issues are. In a standard background check, they do. Jared’s issues are all about the Mueller probe, and it would be inappropriate for the WH to be briefed on those.



WASHINGTON — The Justice Department informed the White House this month that there were substantial issues related to Jared Kushner that still needed to be investigated and would significantly delay a recommendation on whether he should receive a permanent security clearance, according to two people briefed on the matter.

The White House was not told what the issues were involving Mr. Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser. But the notification led White House lawyers and aides to believe that they were more problematic than the complexity of his finances and his initial failure to disclose contacts with foreign leaders — the reasons Mr. Kushner’s lawyers have said are holding up the process, the two people said.

In addition, Kushner’s actions during the transition have been referenced in the guilty plea of former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, who admitted he lied to the FBI about contacts with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Prosecutors said Flynn was acting in consultation with a senior Trump transition official, whom people familiar with the matter have identified as Kushner.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/top-justice-dept-official-alerted-white-house-2-weeks-ago-to-ongoing-issues-in-kushners-security-clearance/2018/02/23/aa9b37c8-17f4-11e8-92c9-376b4fe57ff7_story.html?utm_term=.e356fb47f29a

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

In 2016 Russia defeated the United States in a cyberwar, selecting the president of the United States. Since that victory, Russia continues its campaign in the dark corridors of cyber, colonizing us at every turn: from the Nunes memo to the Parkland shootings. Cyber-colonization can be resisted but first it must be understood.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Mister Sandman]

So let's entertain the idea that assault weapons were banned and confiscated from the millions of law abiding people in this country.

Now what happens when the next shooter straps on 3 or 4 semi automatic handguns and walks into a school. At close range in classrooms and hallways the handguns would be just as effective as an assault rifle.
Do we ban semi automatic handguns then?

That would not happen

Not having access to weapons - just like in any other civilized county - there would be no more mass shooters - just like in any other civilized country

 

[Michael Scally MD]

The point is that we are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.

— George Orwell

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

With each passing day, Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, seems to add another brick to the case he is building — one more indictment, one more interview, one more guilty plea. Mr. Trump and his advisers insist they are not worried because so far none of the charges implicate the president. Yet no one outside Mr. Mueller’s office knows for sure where he is heading and the flurry of recent action seems to be inexorably leading to a larger target.

“When you put that all together, the White House should be extremely worried,” said Benjamin Wittes, editor in chief of Lawfare, a blog that analyzes legal issues, and a friend of James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director who was leading the Russia investigation until being fired by Mr. Trump last year. “You have to ask the question about whether there is a certain measure of self-delusion going on here.”

...

To the extent that Mr. Mueller is exploring whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice by firing Mr. Comey, the president’s defenders contend that under the Constitution, he has the power to dismiss executive branch officials and dictate their work. They also point to testimony by Mr. Comey and other officials who said the investigation was not impeded.

Therefore, they argue, the original order appointing Mr. Mueller was itself invalid and should be revoked.

In the meantime, they are left to interpret the clues from Mr. Mueller’s actions just like everyone else. David B. Rivkin Jr., a former White House and Justice Department lawyer under Mr. Reagan and President George Bush, said the totality of Mr. Mueller’s actions still did not add up to a threat to Mr. Trump.

“It doesn’t make sense to unfold piecemeal an indictment of Russian entities and Russians if you have any hope of building a collusion case. It makes no logical sense,” he said. “To me, at least, what he’s done does underscore that there’s no collusion there. That leaves him with the obstruction of justice narrative which I think is constitutionally flawed and isn’t going to go anywhere.”

Mr. Wittes said Mr. Mueller’s actions could be seen as building a pyramid — establishing that there was a Russian influence campaign and assembling a group of cooperating witnesses. But the special counsel has not tipped his hand yet.

“The basic contours of the puzzle is that he’s constructed his actions in a way that we don’t know where it’s leading,” he said, “and that’s on purpose.”

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Mister Sandman]

So now we find out that it wasn’t just ONE officer that didn’t go in
But FOUR!!!

But we expect teacher to confront shooters???

The only, the ONLY way is to prevent deranged people from acquiring weapons and becoming shooters in the first place!

BREAKING: CNN Reports FOUR Broward County Deputies Waited Outside School As Children Were Massacred

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

They say that the most retweets of Russian misinformation came from two US states: Tennessee and Texas. They also conclude that conservatives were significantly more likely than liberals to retweet the messages.

The team’s method is relatively straightforward. In the month before the election in 2016, the researchers took the temperature of the Twittersphere by downloading over 43 million election-related tweets generated by about 5.7 million users.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]