Author: Spocko

Josh Marshall beaks down the politics behind Susan Collins’ line describing Dr. Ford’s experience of sexual assault.

Collins told Dana Bash: “I do not believe that Brett Kavanaugh was her assailant. I do believe that she was assaulted. I don’t know by whom. I’m not certain when.”

Senate GOPs Ludicrous Theory of the Case

Blasey Ford was sympathetic and highly credible in her testimony. She had taken and passed a lie detector test. She described an event populated by Kavanaugh’s 1982 friend set, something all but impossible to achieve if she did not at least know him fairly well at the time. Republicans knew that for Kavanaugh to be telling the truth, Blasey Ford had to be lying. Remember. She didn’t pick him out of a line up. It really can’t be a good faith misunderstanding. She knew him. She was sure it was him.

But calling her a liar was politically toxic. So they needed a theory that fit each political need. First, Kavanaugh had to be telling the truth and must in fact be innocent. Second, Blasey Ford must think she is telling the truth. (The straightforward answer is that she’s lying. But that’s bad politics.) Ideally, the theory must posit that she was in fact assaulted, just not by Kavanaugh. Otherwise, there’s no basis for the politically required notional empathy. A less plausible scenario is that she has a false memory and she was never attacked at all. But that’s also bad politics. It sounds like saying she’s crazy and not a victim at all.

Collins and her Republican colleagues settled on the one scenario which checks all the political boxes but at the cost of being ridiculously implausible. She was attacked. But even though she is certain that she was attacked by a person she knew already, Brett Kavanaugh, in fact she was mistaken about who attacked her and might well have been attacked at a totally different point in her life. The assault becomes a purely notional placeholder to hold together a bad faith argument. There is zero chance they all come to this argument independently. This is some unknown strategist’s over-clever ruse.

The real point here is that no one can really believe this. Only the most casual cynicism gets you to this argument. It is a poll-tested, built-in-a-lab argument that is driven purely by political needs and can’t possibly be the product of actual belief or reasoning based on the evidence at hand. It’s pure cynicism that too many people are taking seriously.

I understand Josh’s analysis. When I read this kind of analysis my activist mind engages. “What can we do with this?”

One strategy is to bust the GOP’s answers in real time using the media. But our current system of celebrity access journalism means reporters rarely ask follow-up questions. When they DO get a follow-up the politicians usually have one answer prepared and the reporter moves on.

When trapped, politicians are trained to stick to the script. To bust this requires smart questions from non-journalists working together in a format the politicians can’t control.

This is an opportunity for citizens to have “hold the elevator doors open” town halls.  
We saw the impact Maria Gallagher and Ana Maria Archila had on Jeff Flake. These kinds of conversations are very powerful, which means the right will start doing them to the politicians on the left. 

Expect elevator situations where men who were falsely accused ask their Democratic senators, “Where was justice for me!?”  They will demand apologies for how Kavanaugh was treated during the hearing. They will demand new investigations of Bill Clinton.

Women will tell stories about their sons, husbands or fathers who were falsely accused and how their lives were destroyed by a lying woman who was believed without question.

This strategy of continuing the attack, even after it appears that they have won, is a based on their fear of losing their gains when there is a reckoning.

Who’s the unknown strategist? 

Josh brought up the issue of an “unknown strategist” who provided the basis for Collins’ theory. I’m not sure who it was on the GOP senator side, but on the President’s side it might be Bill Shine, formerly of Fox News. now the White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications

Described as, “a right-wing media enforcer with a decades-long track record of fierce loyalty to his boss” Shine knows the Trump audience and what kind of fig leaf would work for Collins and the GOP senators so he set about making one available. 

Let Brett Channel Donald! 
You may have noticed that in the earlier Fox News interview Kavanaugh repeated phrases and maintained an even tone. That’s something that a standard media trainer or legal team would advise  him to do.  But when Trump and Shine saw the first Fox interview they knew it wouldn’t play to their audience.

I suspect Shine coached Kavanaugh on the TONE of his testimony with assistance from Kellyanne Conway on how to lie about definitions in the high school yearbook.

The prep team gave Kavanaugh permission to mirror Trump’s combative style. They assured him the Fox News base would love it.  Advisors like Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro helped support the flipped script of the “aggrieved victim” that the right loves. They also pushed the “Soros is paying for it all” conspiracy theory to discredit Dr. Ford’s supporters.

I watched Jeanine Pirro interview Trump about attacking Dr. Ford.  First she praised him for his earlier restraint and then asked why he “went off script.” She then set Trump up with a perfect question.

“What was it that got you to pivot from your restraint about her and to fight for Kavanaugh?” – Jeanine Pirro

Then she praises his mocking of Dr. Ford as the turning point saying, “it was instinctive, it was guttural and you did it and you won!” (I think it’s funny she said guttural when she meant from the gut. Her Freudian slip shows she knows he’s in the gutter AND his utterance was “strange, unpleasant,and disagreeable” )

The White House is using Fox to reinforce the attack strategy and to set Trump up with leading questions.  (Now with Hope Hicks installed as executive vice president and chief communications officer at Fox, the feedback loop of information to the WH is even stronger.)

Hope Hicks, the Donald Whisperer, is the new EVP and Chief Communications Officer at Fox

Expect More Conspiracy Theories and “Evidence”

Ed Whelan’s doppelganger theory was discredited, but not before it created a splash and got the idea of mistaken identity out there.

I expect that evidence supporting Dr. Ford and other assault survivors will come out.  Conspiracies about the evidence will also come out.  Expect the usual questions:

“Who brought it forth?
Who paid for it?  SOROS! SOROS! SOROS!
What is wrong with the people who brought it forward?”

When new evidence supporting Ford shows up, they will attack old evidence.

I know that hard evidence that will discredit Kavanaugh and his friends will become public eventually. My friend Lisa Graves brought up evidence of Kavanaugh’s  lying under oath in this September 7th issue of Slate. She wrote she expects more evidence when the Democrats have subpoena power after the election in November.

When that happens, I am on the record as saying I WANT all evidence to be questioned and vetted no matter if it looks bad or good for Kavanaugh.  

Between now and subpoena time evidence might show up that looks like it will hurt Kavanaugh and the left will jump on it before it is vetted. Then it will be shown that part of it was faked. (This is a method used to taint real evidence.  Remember the kerning of the Texas Air National Guard memos?)

I want to believe that the people behind the strategy to support Kavanaugh and discredit his accusers are not as sophisticated as the people from the Dubya White House. But then again they have help from the Russians, their own media networks, new social media tools and techniques plus an audience that is primed to believe even the most ludicrous theories.

When you see Trump’s people bragging about winning understand that they are bragging because they are insecure. They know the win was based on manipulations and lies.

They are like a Wile E. Coyote running as fast as he can on air before the gravity eventually kicks in and he falls. They can change the court but not the laws of gravity.  There will be a lot of gravity this fall.

Do You Have Photos From Kavanaugh’s High School or College Years?

by Spocko

If you have photos from the area and time in question, check your files. Your photos could change the course of US history.

In his opening statement Brett Kavanaugh said,

“Dr. Ford’s allegation stems from a party that she alleges occurred during the summer of 1982. Thirty-six years ago. I was 17 years old. Between my junior and senior years of high school at Georgetown Prep, a rigorous all-boys Catholic Jesuit high school in Rockville, Md. When my friends and I spent time together at parties on weekends, it was usually with friends from nearby Catholic all-girl high schools: Stone Ridge, Holy Child, Visitation, Immaculata, Holy Cross.

Dr. Ford did not attend one of those schools. She attended an independent private school named Holton-Arms and she was a year behind me. She and I did not travel in the same social circles. It’s possible we met at some point at some events, although I do not recall that. ”  (Transcript)

The White House has limited the scope of the FBI’s investigation, but regular people can still look and submit hard evidence to the FBI. Kavanaugh mentions the schools he said he hung out with, but that doesn’t mean boys or girls from other schools didn’t attend their parties. If you lived in that area during that time and took photos check your files.

The “Renate Alumni” from a scan of the Georgetown Prep Yearbook by Washington Monthly Photo collage by Spocko based on my photo envelopes from the 1980’s

I was the head photographer of my high school yearbook. In those days not everyone had a camera. Film and prints cost money. But people still took thousands of photos of other high school events. Events that didn’t show up in the year book.  I know they exist because I worked in a photo lab at that time.

I remember the smell of stop bath and fixer as rolls of color negatives came out of the machine.  I saw women working for hours a day in dark rooms to print out batches of 12, 24 or 36 photos. They printed photos of birthday parties. Dances. Keggers. Graduations and drunken parties at the beach.

I only put some of my photos in a scrapbook. Until a few years ago mine were in my parent’s linen closet on the shelf behind the Christmas decorations.  They were in gold and black envelopes reminding people IMPORTANT! PLEASE SAVE THESE NEGATIVES FOR FUTURE USE and “We Use Kodak Paper!”  The dates of development were printed on the back of photos.

I don’t have a calendar to identify all the people in my photos, but I can ask others if they can fill in my memory blanks.

Photos of a 17-year old at a party holding a beer can isn’t proof the person holding it was drunk.
Unless there is video, it’s not even hard evidence the person actually drank the beer. But…

For the yearbook staff identification of who was in the photos was very important. Screwing up something in the yearbook was a BFD because the high school yearbook became the main “permanent record” that other people saw. 

(By The Way, BFD is short for Big Fucking Deal. As far as I know it is not a drinking game nor is it short for “Brett Farts Daily” although I suppose someone could lie about that definition if they are a lying liar. )
 
In high school I was the only photographer with a wide-angle lens, so I took almost all of the team and group photos. I took photos of every group from the nine members of the chess club to the 39 members of the JV football team.

I would turn in my photos with the list of names I got of the people in the club or team to the person in charge of the clubs or sports section who would confirm them.

Do photos of Brett Kavanaugh where he’s got his arms around a woman he now says he doesn’t know mean he is a liar?  Not necessarily. I can look at old photos and not remember the name of people from 36 years ago. But other people in and around the the photo might remember, because perhaps for them that party was a BFD.

Photos aren’t perfect evidence. They can only show what was captured on film and context is still important. But even if the photographer was later blackout drunk, the photo still exists.

Will the “men of conscience” from Georgetown Prep in 1982 come forward?

I went to the web pages of the schools Kavanaugh mentioned. Holton-Arms had a brilliant letter by Susanna A. Jones, the Head of School, about what they are doing now to help their girls. It is through, insightful and extensive “How can we help our young people avoid becoming victims or perpetrators of sexual assault, or if they do, feel empowered to seek support?”

In contrast, Georgetown Prep’s statement was defensive and used the, “other schools have problems too!” whine line of reasoning.

The image that has been presented on social media and in various news outlets depicts recklessness, illegal conduct, and lack of respect for persons. Worse, many blame these faults on institutional indifference.

But the temptations, and the failings, presented in these stories are not unique to Georgetown Prep. The problems and abuses of alcohol and drugs, sexual assault and misconduct, emotional and physical violence toward others are real; educators at every institution of primary, secondary, or higher learning in our nation face these problems every day. 

What I want to know is how this institution will deal with the current situation. Will they help the FBI and provide their own records? Will they open up the old yearbook archives? Or will they stonewall? They state they are dedicated to the mission of “forming men of conscience, competence, courage, and compassion; men of faith and men for others.” how will they act now?

And my big question: Will these “men of conscience” from Georgetown Prep circa 1982 come forward? Does being a “man for others” include telling the truth about what happened to girls from local girl’s schools during summer parties?

This isn’t just about Kavanaugh and what he says anymore, it’s also about his friends and associates from that time period. Will they provide evidence of what they know happened and when it happened? Or will they cover their own mouths? 

The Georgetown Prep statement ends with Latin: Ad majorem Dei gloriam. “To the greater glory of God.” If the boys from that time have evidence of crimes that were committed, will they come forward?  If not, which god are they serving?

9 Ways You Can Help Stop Kavanaugh’s Appointment

By Spocko

One of the things I know about fighting people and organizations with real power is the need to have multiple strategies and tactics working at the same time.

The reason is that you can’t count on just a single angle to work. The other side isn’t stupid. They know how to fight back. What looked like a sure thing can be destroyed in ways you don’t expect.

We must keep using multiple tactics. I tell people to look at their own skill sets and think, “How can I help in a way that is unique to me?”  

Here are some groups of people with areas they can help:

1) Lawyers: What kind of lawsuits can be filed? Were there laws broken people should know about?
2) Journalists: What investigation angle can you do?
3) Politicians: What does it take to start impeachment hearings?
4) Accountants: Is there a financial angle to expose that people should know about?
5) Activists: Is there something new for the media to see?
6) Researchers: What hard evidence can you bring to investigators?
7) Law enforcement: Do you have records of arrests that others don’t know about?

Good strategies allow your tactical moves to build on each other. It’s true that some tactics help, and others hurt. But we have to use multiple tactics because it’s hard to know which will work.

“But I’m not anyone special Spocko, I’m just a regular Jane or Joe.” So ask yourself:
8) Do I have access to information that others don’t?
9) Do I have a skill or position that will allow others to be more effective?

Here are two examples for regular folks like you and me:

Let’s say, for example you work in HR, payroll or IT for a retail store. What can you do? Remember when Dr. Ford wanted to know when Mark Judge worked at Safeway? Maybe your retail store is Safeway! This weekend you can be ready to provide the FBI with Mark Judge’s official employment records AND do it in a way that follows all the corporate HR guidelines to the letter so it is official hard copy evidence.

Did you live in the area in question and had a camera in 1982? Maybe you took photos of a group of boys and girls posing together in 1982 who say now they didn’t know each other. Check your files!

From the FBI new employee’s page. Note the core values poster.

I was a photographer for my yearbook. I have hundreds of photos that I developed but never published. Maybe the people who worked on the yearbooks in and around the area have photos for the FBI. (Here is a link to contact them.) Or get them to the media. Check your files!

A quick word of caution.There will be evidence that looks like it will help Dr. Ford, and it will turn out to be faked. 

One of the techniques of propaganda and “fake news” is to put out something that LOOKS like the perfect thing you want to see. People will forward it everywhere, then it will be shown as fake.  Remember the “kerning” of the letter about George W Bush from the Texas Air National Guard?

During the Bush-era people knew that real evidence existed, so they put out the evidence in a way that would discredit where it came from and the person who brought it forth. They sometimes use a sophisticated technique that combines fake evidence with real evidence to discredit everything. “If this part is fake, how can I trust all the other parts?”

Don’t get suckered. ALWAYS ask for a full and complete investigation before you trust something. 

• Think like a good journalist. “Are there multiple sources?”
• Think like a good prosecutor. “What is the credibility of the witness?”
• Think like a good cop. “Is there a chain of custody of the evidence?”

Keep working on this. You never know which one of the snowflakes will be the one that breaks the tree branch, but if the snow stops the bough might never break.

Go snowflakes!

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On TV when someone from a government agency tells a witness, “We can protect you.”  I turn to Mrs. Spocko and say, “No they can’t!” Because usually two seconds later they cut to a scene where the witness is attacked. I believe protecting witnesses in real life is more successful, which is good for the people involved, but would be bad for TV ratings. I’m glad Mark Burnett isn’t in charge of witnesses. 

What I do know about witness tampering and death threats is the technical process used for tracking threatening phone calls and email like the ones Dr. Ford has received.

I’m now a big fan of Sen. Hirono ever since she called out Grassley’s office for their lame attempts to contact Dr. Ford.

“I would like us to come together and figure out what is the best way to proceed,” Hirono told ABC News on Wednesday evening. 

“Not this seat-of-the-pants stuff,” she added. “The latest, being a letter from the chairman to the Democrats saying, ‘We have done everything we can to contact her.’ That is such bullshit, I can’t hardly stand it.”

Thank you Sen. Hirono for calling out bullshit. You were right about Grassley’s office then and are right about the role of the FBI now.

Sen. Hirono on Grassley’s office inability to reach Dr Ford.  “That is such bullshit, I can’t hardly stand it.”

The FBI doesn’t need the President’s permission to investigate death threats against Dr. Ford. Crimes have already been committed.



Now the next question to ask the FBI is, “How many people have you arrested for death threats and witness tampering?”

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Manafort Found Guilty. Cohen Pleads Guilty. Who’s Next?

By Spocko

I’m not going to try to analyze the breaking news, there will be plenty of people who will do this
See these stories in the Rolling Stone:

Michael Cohen Pleads Guilty, Admits Trump Directed Election Influence

Paul Manafort Found Guilty on Eight Counts in First Major Russia Investigation Case

What I want to note is that these two cases SHOULD signal a change in how the media talks about this case. But there will be one group that will not, Fox “News.”

People who advised the president during the election have been found guilty and have plead guilty of crimes related to the campaign. Who else could fit into this category? People at Fox News.

Recently Ellen at Newshounds pointed this out from Omarosa’s book
Omarosa: Fox Sent Daily Talking Points, Spin Suggestions, Resources To Trump Campaign and this from Buzzfeed editor Tarini Parti.

Interesting tidbit from Omarosa’s book on the Trump camp & Fox News: “…a select Trump campaign mailing list received daily emails directory from a producer at Fox News that summarized the news of the day, broke down talking points and spin suggestions, and officered resources.”

— Tarini Parti (@tparti) August 15, 2018

offered**
Omarosa adds:
“People speculated that there was a relationship between Fox News and the Trump campaign, and that there were people at Fox working tirelessly to get him elected. To all those people, I can confirm that you have no idea just how right you were.”

— Tarini Parti (@tparti) August 15, 2018

Federal election laws aren’t only about money, some of them are about disclosure. Others are about providing assistance and reporting that assistance to the authorities.

What is the value of this Fox News producer’s work?

It’s time to stop looking at Fox News as a legitimate news organization and start looking at them as a propaganda arm of the GOP. 

Should we start looking at individuals as unindicted co-conspirators in campaign election law violations?

We know who the producer is who has been feeding the Trump White House info. Who gave them their marching orders? Bill Shine is on the inside now, what was he doing before when he was on the outside at Fox? (Besides covering up sexual harassment for decades?)

Suzanne Scott, left, chief executive of Fox News who should know about the producer helping Trump. She is shown, in 2014, with the model Carol Alt and Bill Shine, a former co-president of the network who was forced out in 2017.Credit Larry Busacca/Getty

If people at Fox, like Suzanne Scott and Bill Shine, helped Trump in ways that violated FEC rules, who is going to investigate them? Legitimate media will probably defend them, because they want to believe Fox is legit, but as they can now see people are actually going to jail for violations. This are not just fines. Other news organizations might want to stop classifying Fox News as the media, when especially when Fox execs knowingly break the law.

Hey Hey NRA, How Much Russian Money Did You Take Today?

The other organization, and set of individuals, to look at related to violating Federal election laws is the NRA. The NRA took money from foreign entities and used it to help Donald Trump and number of other Republicans.  (See my Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony Pulitzer award nominated video)

If Manafort’s and Cohen’s cases lead to FEC violations, shouldn’t the groups and individuals who had similar violations also be charged?

Rachel Maddow pointed out last night that Maria Butina was moved to the same prison that held Manafort. But no reason was given why. Maybe it’s because they both have reason to fear from Russian oligarchs and this is a safer place. 

Sometimes I think I don’t believe anyplace is safe because of all the spy movies I watch.  Then I read about the poisoning of Russian spies in the UK. This stuff is real folks.

[Updated 4:06 pm from draft version.)

Today I’m grateful for Don Jr.’s arrogance.

By Spocko

The rich and powerful are used to working the refs, greasing the skids, changing the laws, getting rid of the evidence and undermining the Justice system when all their other tricks fail.

Donald Jr. has tried to copy his father’s moves, but he never had the same feral understanding of the world as his father. He also didn’t have the layers of lawyers, accountants and fixers that have assisted his Dad for years.

People say that Trump doesn’t care about anyone but himself or money, but I think he cares about his kids.  Jr’s mistakes and blunders, and his dad’s attempt to fix them, are giving the case against Trump Sr. some solid evidence and leverage needed for impeachment.

It won’t be the whole case, but because the Don Jr. part can be linked to the election, Russia and his Dad, it is strong.

Think about the need for approval that Donald Trump Sr. has shown. It extends to the whole world! It’s a hole he can’t fill. Does his son have the same pathology, or just the need to get his father’s approval that many sons have?

What would the son do to win his dad’s approval? Look at his actions.

I envision Don Jr. as a 5-year old in his father’s workshop.  He holds up a power saw. “Look daddy! I’m helping. I’m helping!” 

“Put that down, you’ll hurt yourself!”
After getting yelled at the boy goes off and sulks, “I’ll show him!”

If Don Jr. was dedicated and smart he could have gone on to learn the trade and rules (and how the crooked break them.) But he took the shortcuts the rich and arrogant use. For this I am grateful.

The good news is that Don Jr.’s desire for approval, combined with his stupidity, laziness and arrogance has made it easier to bust him, and then his father.

We are fighting rich powerful people who lie constantly and break the few laws they haven’t changed to be legal. They have been getting away with it for years.

I can see now that the case against Trump will use the son’s attempt to impress his father, then use the father’s attempt to protect his son to bring down the father.

In another era this would be a Homeric tragedy. In ours it’s an episode of the Simpsons.

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Carrying A Gun Didn’t Protect Rep. Collins From Insider Trading Indictment 

by Spocko

Today Rep. Chris Collins (R) NY was arrested for insider trading.  Last year he wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post that was carried in major papers around the country. The title of the OpEd was:

I’m a member of Congress and I’m going to start carrying a gun 

I wrote about it here Does Rep. Collins have insurance for a gun accident?  

Rep Chris Collins (R) photo Michael Mroziak, WBFO

My point was to question two narratives pushed by the gun lovers:
1) A good gun with a gun will protect you from a bad guy with a gun
2) Concealed carry gun owners are law abiding and responsible

For the first I pointed out that guns can’t protect you when you are caught unaware. Only something like body armor or bulletproof glass can do that.

For the second I wrote about all the ways that people who break the law don’t expect to be caught, and when they do, there should be penalties and consequences.

You decide to break that law and carry your gun concealed into the gun-free zone then BANG!  You didn’t intend to have an accident, but you did intend to break the law by bringing your gun into a place it was prohibited.  Violating that law could mean you are not covered by insurance.

For people like Collins, breaking a law, such as bringing a gun in a gun-free zone, is an acceptable action because of the explanation given — self protection. Even though scientific data from active shooter cases will show this explanation to rarely be the case, the “self defense” explanation is still used.  An more accurate explanation would be:

“Carrying a gun makes me FEEL safe and like a tough guy. I want to be able to shoot people who I think are threatening me or my loved ones.” 

If I had followed Collins around after his op-ed I’m pretty sure I could have caught him violating the law and entering private businesses where guns were not allowed. If he was busted, and the business wanted to press charges, it would have been a misdemeanor. He probably would have claimed he forgot and that the problem was the law, not him breaking it.

False Statements Made “Knowingly and Willfully” 

Collins allegedly broke several laws in this insider trading case: Conspiracy to Commit Securities Fraud, Securities Fraud, Wire Fraud, Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud and False Statements.

We see people complaining about politicians lying to the public and to the media.But lying to the public or the media is not a crime. If it was, President Trump would be indicted 48 times an hour.

“We will answer the charges filed against Congressman Collins in court and will mount a vigorous defense to clear his good name,”  “It is notable that even the government does not allege that Congressman Collins traded a single share” of the company’s stock.

If Collins ends up being convicted, this will send a shock wave though political circles. How many other Congresspeople, Senators spouses, children and friends have acted on insider knowledge?

The Republicans will demand that a Democrat be indicted “to be fair” and will scream that they are being picked on by the State of New York because they supported Trump. (See NRA whining)

To muddy the waters the conservatives will push the, “both sides do it.” and “It’s a witch hunt to hurt Trump supporters” followed by it’s only an isolated case of a “bad apple.”

Even though the odds are that there are 100’s cases of Republican insider trading and financial shenanigans to one Democrat one, I expect that the media will be searching for (and will be served up on a platter) cases of Democrats who should be charged for securities fraud.

The Democrats attacked will be the ones the conservatives are most worried about. BE PREPARED!  It will be important to not jump to conclusions. The appropriate response for crimes needs to first be:  “There needs to be through and transparent investigations.” and Due process needs to be carried out for all involved.

We know that the Republicans will aggressively go after Democrats in this area, since they assume everyone is as corrupt as they are. In some cases they will be correct! But the people who will be digging up charges and making accusations aren’t going to play fair. They will just want to hurt Democrats and distract from the massive corruption at the top.

Unfortunately, the Democrats will NOT go after Republicans for these kind of crimes. Maybe they are hoping that if they don’t go after the Republicans the Republicans won’t go after them.  That’s not how it will play out.

 If more financial crime cases start popping up on the Republican side, the temptation is to paint all politicians with the same brush, so BE PREPARED.

Always Demand Due Process and Complete InvestigationsI expect a situation like with Al Franken and the allegations of sexual harassment will happen. There will be demands for resignations before all the facts are known.   suggest we demand due process for ALL cases of political financial shenanigans no matter which party. It’s the rational thing to do and politically smart.

If the accusations turn out to be true, then we were fair, and the person well have to accept the consequences. If it turns about to be BS, we can show how the false accusations were politically motivated.

Think about all the investigations of the Clintons that didn’t yield indictments. Those accusations created a sense of “something is wrong there” that has had a long lasting impact.

As much as I would like the Democrats to go after Republican financial chicanery, I don’t think that will happen, but the least we can do is to be aware that the RW alt-media will use a case of their corruption to attack Democrats to set up the mainstream media for their standard “both sides do it” narrative.
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Follow the NRA Rubles: Or Hunting Russian Honey Pot Election Money

by Spocko

“Follow the rubles,” said the modern day Deep Throat.  But following money is boring!  Who cares if you find the connections between Russia, the NRA and the 2016 elections of Republican politicians and campaign finance law violations?

Luckily we have Maria Butina. Everyone wants to know about her and her leader’s plan to influence the US elections.

In the same way the Stormy Daniels case gave the media an eye catching hook to look into the corrupt dealings of Michael Cohen and Donald Trump, so too will the Maria Butina case give the media a way to look deeper into the Russian connection to the NRA and the influence they have had on the Trump campaign as well as MULTIPLE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGNS.

Because the mainstream media needs to look serious, they won’t just cover this “unregistered foreign agent” they will also report on the multiple campaign finance violations committed by the NRA over the years. But we all know it’s the sexy spy that will lead the coverage. Which is fine with me, as long as the NRA involvement is fully exposed.

Following the FBI and Mueller investigations, there should be big fines for the NRA, lots of them. Because the NRA knew what they were doing. For years the NRA has used shell games and parsed the language of campaign finance law to avoid reporting and detection. As Howie Klein pointed out back in January of this year.

“There are two other clear grounds for federal campaign finance law liability: soliciting a “thing of value” from a foreign national, and “substantially assisting” the foreign national in spending to influence an election.”

The money from Russian to the NRA then to Trump will be the white whale story (orange wail?), but there are many more down ticket races where Republicans were helped by NRA/rubles. I made a video to point some of them out.

When the NRA campaign finance violations become known by the politicians who were helped, what should happen?

• Demand they condemn the NRA for their coordination with Russia?
• Demand they donate the money to a non-partisan group like Opensecrets.org?
• Give the money back? (Of course the NRA would love that, they are whining they need it. The NRA Says It’s in Deep Financial Trouble, May Be ‘Unable to Exist’)

Fun fact: It’s illegal for foreign funds to be spent in American elections.

The NRA has a pattern of other types of campaign-finance violations too. Mike Spies of the Trace did a great piece looking into other violations, The Mystery Firm That Became the NRA’s Top Election Consultant but sadly he noted:

“The FEC is widely considered a toothless agency, paralyzed by partisan infighting, and campaign-finance laws are often honored in the breach.”

This is why I’m happy about Butina. Her involvement will highlight a lot of great reporting about the financial and personal connections between Russia, the NRA and Republican politicians. Here’s a few for those interested.

For an excellent overall timeline see Ladd Everitt‘s very through work that is still being updated.

Denise Clifton and Mark Follman in Mother Jones have many stories on the case like, The Very Strange Case of Two Russian Gun Lovers, the NRA, and Donald Trump wherein we learn about Alexander Torshin (who really should be played by Patton Oswalt in the movie. )

Once again McClatchy was head of the pack with this piece by Peter Stone and Greg Gordon from January 18, 2017, FBI, 5 other agencies probe possible covert Kremlin aid to Trump. In their recent work they have been “following the rubles” with this story about  Cleta Mitchell,  Lawyer who worked for NRA said to have had concerns about group’s Russia ties  

David Corn of Mother Jones asked the question, Did Alleged Russian Spy Maria Butina Cause a Leadership Shake-up at the NRA? The quick installment of Oliver North as NRA president becomes  much more interesting if it involves a sexy Russian operative.

(BTW, as someone who has watched thousands of spy movies I always roll my eyes when I see female spies working on straight guys. Men soooo easily get sucked into these schemes. Then add in a bunch of old white guys who like to carry around guns as proof of their manhood? As the slaughter lobby members might say, it’s a “target rich environment.” )

As more about the Butina case becomes revealed in court, it will be good to keep looking at the money and people connections but also to “things of value” and who was “substantially assisting” the foreign national in spending to influence an election.

 If the Russian plan wasn’t so effective, it might seem like something out of a cartoon show.  But we need to see that this was a long-term, multimillion dollar plan by the Russians to interfere with our elections and the NRA was an eager and willful participant.  

There needs to be serious consequences for NRA for their actions.

Right Wing Media Hits Back at Sleeping Giants Founder

by Spocko

Four days ago the The Daily Caller, a site co-founded by Tucker Carlson, revealed the identity of one of the founders of Sleeping Giants. Today the New York Times did a follow up piece on the founder.

Just after the 2016 election, an anonymously run Twitter account emerged with a plan to choke off advertising dollars to Breitbart News, the hard-edge, nationalist website closely tied to President Trump’s administration.

The account, named Sleeping Giants, urged people to collect screenshots of ads on Breitbart and then question brands about their support of the site. Sleeping Giants correctly guessed that many companies did not know where their digital ads were running, and advertisers were caught off guard as the account circulated images of blue-chip brands in proximity to headlines like “Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy.”

As hundreds of brands blocked their ads from appearing on Breitbart, and the account expanded to put pressure on certain Fox News shows, the people behind Sleeping Giants maintained their anonymity — until this week.

The founder’s story is very similar to mine. (About Spocko. Here is the link to my story in the New York Times from 2007) I won’t go into detail here since I’ve told this story before.

When I read the Daily Caller story I saw threats of violence in the comments section (although many of the worst from 4 days ago have since been deleted), as well as personal information about the founder and his wife (a violation to the Daily Caller’s Terms of Service.) They listed his place of employment and clients he had worked for suggesting they be boycotted and used the phrase “Turnabout is fair play.”

Based on my personal experience and a over a decade of observations, for a large section of people on the right, their idea of “turnabout” is not fair play. Their response to a legal protest action is escalated retaliation.

Death Threats Are Not Fair Play

 From the article:

He added that he had received a barrage of threats and harassment in the wake of the Daily Caller article, which also named his wife and friends.

Sending the founder threats of violence–because he wrote polite alerts to advertisers suggesting that they might want to reconsider where they are advertising–is not fair play.

Look at how polite and civil this action is!

How to be a Giant:
1) look on Breitbart & take a screenshot of an ad
2) tweet it to the advertiser with a polite note
3) tag @slpng_giants

— Sleeping Giants (@slpng_giants) November 27, 2016

The retaliation against people politely alerting advertisers doesn’t just come from unnamed trolls. Sometimes it comes from highly-paid operatives of the right. The New York Times quoted Brian Glicklich as a spokesman for Breitbart. I recognized that name. He was hired by Rush Limbaugh in 2015 for “reputation management” after 1000’s of advertisers left the show after being alerted by people about the sexist comments made by Limbaugh.

What was Glicklich’s method to help Rush’s reputation? Did he suggest Rush stop saying disgusting sexist things? He might have, but based on the public evidence I’ve seen, he went after the people who contacted the advertisers–then threatened and extorted them. These tactics led to his Twitter account being suspended twice. Twitter Suspends Rush Limbaugh’s $900/Hour Fixer For Extortion, Harassment (UPDATE) Not very civil.

When someone on the left runs a successful action that has an impact on the right, one of the tactics used by the right wing media is to identify the leaders of the action so that followers on the right can act. They don’t always say what the followers should do, just vague, “Who shall rid me of this troublesome priest?” suggestions. But other times, as we have seen from the bully-in-chief, he comes comes right out and encourages violence at his rallies.  Not very civil.

I don’t have the statistics about number or severity of threats from the right vs the left. I do know that when it comes to threats of violence, the right pretends to be the victim while they actually are the bully. For example, since they couldn’t find a prominent person on the left saying what Trump does, they lied about what Maxine Waters said when she encouraged people to tell Trump cabinet members they weren’t welcome in  public spaces. At no time did she call for violence against or harm to come to anyone.

On the other side threats of violence from Trump led to actual violence at a Kentucky rally. In that case Trump is being sued for incitement and the suit has been allowed to move forward.

Here is what Sarah Huckabee Sanders had to say about this, “The president in no way, form, or fashion has ever promoted or encouraged violence.” (I would laugh but I have chapped lips.)

When threats of violence are dismissed or downplayed it sends a message to people that they are acceptable. They are not.

I believe there should be consequences to the people making threats of violence to others, especially “true threats” as defined in the Elonis v. United States case. 

I write about activism and have written about the death threats to gun-control activists, especially those from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

I’m currently looking into the SWATTING of Parkland students David Hogg on June 5th, Cameron Kasky on June 6th and Sarah Chadwick on June 11th. I’ve contacted the police and sheriffs in Broward County, Palm Beach and the City of Coral Spring. It’s been over a month and there has been no arrests, but the case is still active and the cities are coordinating their efforts. 

I’ve spoken to Florida legislators who are very concerned about these threats and want to ensure the people making the threats are prosecuted to the full extent of the law. The good news is that Florida recently changed the state code to make threats a class 2 felony. 

When the people who make threats of violence are caught, tried and convicted of felonies it will send a message that there are real consequences for those who make threats of violence.

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