No collusion, my ass!
Thereâs actually lots of evidence of Trump-Russia collusion - Vox
The number of contacts between the Trump team and Russia-linked operatives to 76, and 23 of these contacts were meetings (including Skype calls.) None of these contacts were ever reported to the proper authorities. Instead, the Trump team tried to cover up every single one of them.
Explaining PLCâs isnât easy, bravo for tackling this. It might help to add what type of control systems were primarily used prior to PLCâs. I worked around manufacturing for years but not in a technical role and saw engineers implement changes evolving to PLCâs when process systems were changed.
Hey Mr. Sept. (pls provide centerfold - hahah) - actually, PLCs are very old tech but kind of a work-horse in the plug and play factory/industrial model. I would say in the 1990s they werenât new but common. I do not know when they were introduced but I would think this was a tech in growth/adapting in the same time as 286-386 PCs - 1987-89? I am not an engineer - would have to google or ask others I know from work long ago. In the later 90s there was a lot of programing in ânodesâ little smart boxes in wiring to other controls - whether in processing or factory mode. The thing is âup streamâ back in the control room in power plant it was pretty easy to access and direct. There are a lot of common programs out there back in that time period for factory control - Profibus, etc. I think hand held controllers (think VERY early cell phone like app) was the next âthingâ. There was a lot of open source and wouldnât it be great you didnât have to walk a mile to get âsparkyâ to do what you could do away from the site. SO with that in mind and that the next and the next layer was added⊠it really isnât that hard to think that Russian hackers had not figure out how to fuck with us⊠especially on the electrical grid. And more so on the net. I sound all paranoid like - ah because I am.
Itâs my understanding PLCâs evolved to todayâs higher level of control systems used in manufacturing today. True?
An awesome interactive info-graphic that has just been updated. I like the âfilter optionâ at the bottom of the page. For example, you can display just the Mueller Team, or just the people who have been indicted, or just those related to the Steele Dossier, etc. Itâs a fun page to explore as well as being a great resource.
These guys do try to keep their facts straightâŠgood resource to review the constant flow of information coming in.
I like that one and the one on Bill Moyers from a Prof from Northwestern who had no idea there would be this much to see, review⊠like here smile.
Selective recap on what areas Mueller is looking atâŠanother connect-the-dots document with links.
They link to a lot of articlesâŠ
The premise was a bit hard to follow but the new piece for me was the illegality of using foreign resources in a U.S. election.
This article by Murray Waas has been discussed by pundits (MSNBC) as being another (hidden) indicator that Mueller must have very damning information provided by Don McGahn who presents a timeline of what T knew and when did he know it, regarding Flynnâs compromised position. It is another bit of evidence that T purposely obstructed justice in the face of known facts and subsequently fired Comey because he did not like anything having to do with an investigation.
Flynn, Comey, and Mueller: What Trump Knew and When He Knew It
Murray Waas
Previously undisclosed evidence in the possession of Special Counsel Robert Muellerâincluding highly confidential White House records and testimony by some of President Trumpâs own top aidesâprovides some of the strongest evidence to date implicating the president of the United States in an obstruction of justice. Several people who have reviewed a portion of this evidence say that, based on what they know, they believe it is now all but inevitable that the special counsel will complete a confidential report presenting evidence that President Trump violated the law. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the special counselâs work, would then decide on turning over that report to Congress for the House of Representatives to consider whether to instigate impeachment proceedings.
The central incident in the case that the president obstructed justice was provided by former FBI Director James B. Comey, who testified that Trump pressed Comey, in a private Oval Office meeting on February 14, 2017, to shut down an FBI criminal investigation of Trumpâs former national security adviser, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. âI hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,â Comey has testified the president told him.
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If, therefore, Trump understood the legal jeopardy that Flynn faced, that would demonstrate such intentâand make for a much stronger case for obstruction against the president. Conversely, if Trump believed that Flynn was no longer under criminal investigation, or had been cleared, the president could not have had corrupt intent. But previously undisclosed evidence indicates just the oppositeâthat President Trump was fully informed that Flynn was the target of prosecutors.I have learned that a confidential White House memorandum, which is in the special counselâs possession, explicitly states that when Trump pressured Comey he had just been told by two of his top aidesâhis then chief of staff Reince Priebus and his White House counsel Don McGahnâthat Flynn was under criminal investigation. This memo, the existence of which I first disclosed in December in Foreign Policy, was, as one source described it to me, âa timeline of events [in the White House] leading up to Flynnâs resignation.â It was dated February 15, 2017, and was prepared by McGahn two days after Flynnâs forced resignation and one day after Trumpâs meeting with Comey. As I reported, research for the memo was âprimarily conducted by John Eisenberg, the deputy counsel to the president and legal adviser to the National Security Council,â who, in turn, was âassisted by James Burnham, another White House counsel staff member.â
Thanks for this â a mountain of evidence that Trump conspired to protect Flynn from prosecution.
And letâs not forget that Pence is also complicit with Flynn â in this case, regarding Flynnâs receipt of over half a million dollars in secret payments from Turkey. Itâs stunning to consider that Pence actually knew about these payments, yet still vetted Flynn for the highest security post in our country, National Security Advisor. How do we know that Pence knew? Because Flynn himself disclosed the investigation against him to the Transition Team of which Pence was the head. Yet Pence still handed Flynn the keys to our nationâs most critical secrets.
This article is a resource on what Pence knew about Flynn. Itâs over a year old, but is as true today as it was then:
The dream of every GOP government member - to collect 2 âpaychecksâ while in or out of office! Meanwhile, back in Florida, the cool-aid was passed around with enthusiasm.
This was written in 2017 and covers a lot of ground in terms of what the Russian meddling looked like.
It presents seven scenarios about who the players were and why. Interesting accumulation of details.
Seven Theories of the Case: What Do We Really Know About LâAffaire Russe and What Could it All Mean? - Lawfare
Some of the basic premises of what Russiaâs (Putin) viewpoint towards TâŠ
Is he a useful tool, or something else? We all feel Russia has the upper hand with playing T.
Some excerpts
âPutin runs the country based on trying to keep the rich people rich and compromised so that if they step out of line, he can crush them,â says John Sipher, a former CIA station chief in Moscow. The trick of this system is that the rich neednât even be told that theyâve been compromised and that embarrassing details of their lives are kept in dossiers in the Lubyanka. The oligarchs simply assume that to be the case and act accordingly. The members of the Russian business elite are manipulated but uncontrolled assets whose outsize personalities and public profiles are best managed with a hands-off approach from the state.
It is in this light that questions uppermost since the peculiar spectacle of the Helsinki summitââWhat do the Russians have on Donald Trump?â or âIs Donald Trump an agent of Moscow?ââare better examined. An American oligarch is the best way to define how the Russian establishment and security organs view Trump, according to Steven Hall:
Since Helsinki, this has been firmed up in my mind. Iâd be very surprised if Trump was a standard intelligence recruit, the type of guy whoâd meet his handler under a bridge in Vienna and whoâd be paid for influence. Thereâs almost a commercial aspect to how the Russians deal with him rather than an asset-running one. Itâs a trusted relationship with someone they can nudge without having to instruct or order.
Burton Gerber, a thirty-nine-year veteran of the CIA and mentor to both Hall and Sipher, agrees with this assessment. The notion of Trump in certain precincts of the media as a Manchurian candidate, a Russian asset owned and run by the Kremlin, is ridiculous, he argues:
Trump is basically a man with low self-esteem, which he has worked against by being a bully and a narcissist. His actions scream, âTake me, Iâm yours if youâll admire and compliment me.â The Russians would never want to recruit him, just continuously have access to him and be able to influence him.
Gerber compares Trump to Harry Hopkins, an architect of the New Deal whom the Soviets cajoled because of his closeness to Roosevelt, rather than to Alger Hiss, whom the KGB actively recruited as a spy within the US government. âIf youâve got someone like Trump, an agent of influence,â he asks, âwhy would you then try to make him more than what he is? It would be irresponsible from an intelligence point of view.â
After Helinski, a former Russian official told me that the Kremlin was actually worried now. They were expecting a statesmanlike and uneventful summit with platitudes but little by way of substantive agreements. However, so deferential was Trump toward Putin, the diplomat said, that the Russians were worried the White House or Congress would have no choice but to retaliate by passing more sanctions. (In the event, the president seemed to opt for threatening all-caps war with Iran on Twitter, perhaps to distract from his self-abasing performance in Finland and his own partyâs embarrassment from it, which forced him to postpone a proposed follow-up meeting with Putin at the White House.)
Trump was reportedly livid that his Putin-hugging in Helsinki had not played better at home. Unlike Harry Hopkins, Trump cares nothing for social safety nets and is not motivated by ideology, only ego and a self-image as the great deal-maker, the ultimate winner. âThe world is made up of people with either killer instincts or without killer instincts,â he told TV presenter Rona Barrett in 1980. âAnd people that seem to emerge are the people that are competitive and driven and with a certain instinct to win.â
Iâm just going to leave this here, happy reading. 
Excellent summary by Axios on recent cyber attacks on the US critical infrastructure.
Peter Smith was someone who handled transactions allegedly between the Kremlin hackers and T campaigned sourced funds, however he committed suicide and the rest of the information trail has been difficult to uncover. Perhaps Mueller has a line in on this.
Now, BuzzFeed News has reviewed documents showing that FBI agents and congressional investigators have zeroed in on transactions Smith made right as his effort to procure Clintonâs emails heated up. Just a day after he finished a report suggesting he was working with Trump campaign officials, for example, he transferred $9,500 from an account he had set up to fund the email project to his personal account, later taking out more than $4,900 in cash. According to a person with direct knowledge of Smithâs project, the Republican operative stated that he was prepared to pay hackers âmany thousands of dollarsâ for Clintonâs emails â and ultimately did so.
Smith is dead, and his lawyer, former business partner, and wife did not respond to numerous requests for an interview. The White House did not immediately return a message seeking commentâŠ
The money trail, made public here for the first time, sheds new light on Smithâs effort, in which he told people he was in touch with both Russians on the dark web and Trump campaign officials â particularly Michael Flynn, who was then a top adviser to the Trump campaign and later served as national security adviser before having to resign after misleading White House officials about his meetings with the Russian ambassador to the United States.
The Wall Street Journal, which spoke with Smith about 10 days before he killed himself last year, broke the story about his operation to obtain Clintonâs emails and his alleged connections to Flynn.
The pile-up of information re: Russians influencers and the hacking of DNC etc works.
The Daily Beast is able to shed unprecedented light on how Pavlov and those around him operate, thanks to a circumstance all too familiar to Hillary Clinton aide John Podesta, the Democratic National Committee, and others: The contents of Pavlovâs emails were leaked and posted online following what he says was a hacking attack to an obscure site used by hackers to dump their finds. (The identity of Pavlovâs hackers is not known, and Pavlov has not publicly speculated on it.)
This rare cache of documents, plus court records from cases across the U.S. and detailed reporting, give a rare insight into the complex nexus of connections in which Pavlov residesâa network that draws in interests connected to Putin and also business connections of President Trump.
They also reveal the way Russia and its oligarchs and outriders workâdrawing together those in the Western establishment, its top businesses, and its numerous middlemen into the intrigues of the Russian state, its satellites, and its wealthy power players.
Nice post! i have family members that are/were US attorneys - one now a judge so there goes that family conversation⊠Anyway, I think the book version of the Russian-trump-putin will be well addressed by Craig Ungerâs new book. He is a really thorough researcher.