The 4th quarter 2016 We’ve Got a Bigger Problem Now WHTM pledge drive continues! If you appreciate the blog, please donate what you can! THANKS!
I guess some congratulations are in order for one Vladimir Putin, the Russian kleptocrat who used strategic leaks of hacked information to win the election (or at least the electoral college) for Donald Trump, a thin-skinned narcissist and easily manipulable geopolitical naif.
I mean, we knew that before. But now it’s pretty much official.
The Washington Post reports:
The CIA has concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency, rather than just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system, according to officials briefed on the matter.
Intelligence agencies have identified individuals with connections to the Russian government who provided WikiLeaks with thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and others, including Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, according to U.S. officials. Those officials described the individuals as actors known to the intelligence community and part of a wider Russian operation to boost Trump and hurt Clinton’s chances.
“It is the assessment of the intelligence community that Russia’s goal here was to favor one candidate over the other, to help Trump get elected,” said a senior U.S. official briefed on an intelligence presentation made to U.S. senators. “That’s the consensus view.”
Yep, that’s right. The outcome of our election was essentially determined by a hostile foreign power — with the active encouragement of Donald Trump, the candidate who benefited from Russia’s interference.
It’s also now clear just how selective Russia’s use of hacked information was. The New York Times reports that the Russians also successfully hacked the Republican National Committee’s email servers, but chose not to release any of these emails.
No wonder Trump is skipping most of his intelligence briefings.
Some people are comparing these revelations to Watergate. I don’t think that’s fair. This is ten times more significant than Watergate. It calls the whole election into question.
Trump is not our President. And he should not be sworn into office unless and until we have a full public reckoning of how exactly he “won” this election.
McCain and Graham are taking a stand about this, so that’s at least two Republicans, which would take away the GOP’s majority vote if it comes down to that at all.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/12/08/republicans-ready-to-launch-wide-ranging-probe-of-russia-despite-trumps-stance/?utm_term=.f8ea9d12460b
Let’s not forget sick and/or disabled people, as well, who haven’t been specifically named targets but will be the victims of repealing current healthcare laws nonetheless.
There is something we can all do though. People are calling into question the possibility of requesting a re-vote. That seems the fairest solution, if we are going to pretend Trump is still a viable candidate. Call your local government officials, share the message with others, find local protests going on (there are many peaceful ones occurring, including some scheduled for this weekend!), and spread this all to news sources. We the people should not be silent on this. WE CAN’T BE.
Furthermore, there are other efforts we can make to keep Trump out of office, especially now with this horrifying confirmation about Russia’s involvement. Support groups like the HAMILTON ELECTORS and the makers of the ELECTORAL COLLEGE PETITION. These people and the movements they’ve created are more important than ever, now that the Electoral College is the last fail-safe before Trump is inaugurated. They will vote December 19, so please support these groups’ messages and share! (LINKS FOR ALL BELOW)
Hamilton Electors Social Media:
Facebook: Here
Twitter: Here
Website: Here
Electoral College Petition Social Media:
Facebook: Here
Twitter: Here
Website: Here
Does this mean that we need to stop calling Trump “Führer” and start calling him “Tsar”?
Mitch McConnell recently said that repealing the ACA is the first thing scheduled for the new year’s session. He also said that they wouldn’t be working on a replacement until at least 3 years from now (no doubt so that the new health care system they come up with will be launching around the next election).
So, yes, there will be victims of this. Millions will lose coverage, and thousands upon thousands will die because of it. Those that don’t die will be economically destroyed in paying for their health care.
Re-election sounds like the best path forward. I really hope that happens.
Legal note: treason is not the only crime America has that’s related to interactions with foreign powers. Espionage seems more likely to come up than treason.
Can somebody refresh my memory please?
Wasn’t there something during the election where Trump either invited the Russians to hack or said something along the lines that he wouldn’t mind if they did? Or am I just imagining that?
If that is the case then the Clinton legal team will no doubt be Googling ‘aiding, abetting, counseling or procuring‘
(That’s the English terminology but US law has the same thing. See also ‘incitement’)
@Hippodameia
I agree with you. Cognitive dissonance got him elected, there’s no reason for anyone to set it aside now.
All you’ll hear is a thousand, thousand “But Hillary…!” replies.
NATO was getting ready for a potential showdown with Russia, so the Kremlin backed someone who would embarrass the United States internationally and weaken foreign alliances. Now the Republicans need to avoid stepping out of line if they want to stay in power.
Trump also won partly because he echoed many of the popular conspiracy theories promoted in pro-Russian propaganda. The Obama administration didn’t enforce federal laws that require networks like Al-Jazeera and RT to register as agents of a foreign power, so they were free to discreetly recruit Internet pundits to bolster their narratives. Since pro-Russian propaganda is popular, all that made it appear that Trump was standing up for ordinary people against a powerful and corrupt elite.
Whatever someone might try to charge Trump with the real question is whether they can find evidence of his or his campaign’s deliberate involvement. And if he is charged with something, or even just a smoking gun is found that convinces most Americans his Presidency is now illegitimate, the result may simply be Pence becoming President, which really isn’t much better. It would be just like if the Birther nonsense was true, Joe Biden would have replaced Obama, not Romney like some Birthers seemed to think.
Apparently, Lindsey Graham, John McCain, and the Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr are planning on working with Democratic members of Congress on the matter of Russia influencing U.S elections.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/12/09/the-cia-concluded-russia-worked-to-elect-trump-republicans-now-face-an-impossible-choice/?tid=pm_world_pop&utm_term=.1da03dc78e39
It’s amazing Trump has managed to antagonize members of his own party to the point that they’re willing to work with members of their opposition and potentially loose huge amounts of political capital.
@Alan
He did, but that was a dog-whistle in the form of a joke. (it’s also what I was referring to in the previous post)
Kind of like his suggestion to “second amendment folks”.
I’m not sure just how much water this can hold in court, especially since “SATIRE !!1!1” is becoming pretty much the norm in American society at large. Are there precedents for a case like this ?
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/28/us/politics/donald-trump-russia-clinton-emails.html
DORAL, Fla. — Donald J. Trump said on Wednesday that he hoped Russian intelligence services had successfully hacked Hillary Clinton’s email, and encouraged them to publish whatever they may have stolen, essentially urging a foreign adversary to conduct cyberespionage against a former secretary of state.
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Mr. Trump said during a news conference here in an apparent reference to Mrs. Clinton’s deleted emails. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
@Podkayne
Good find! Will be sharing on social media! (And share it with Hillary’s accounts, too!)
By the way, some of us have been talking on Twitter about this whole thing…Is there really no way the American people can band together and as a collective unit sue Trump (and/or the GOP)? I’m pretty sure a lot of people would get behind such a motion.
I hope that Trump can be prevented from actually getting into office, but at this point I expect the Republicans (and many Democrats) to avoid doing anything productive. And even if they do, I think the well is thoroughly poisoned. The Trumpists have let all the stops out. America’s inhibitions are gone. Grinning sadists have taken over.
My long-term hope is now for something better than the United States. A country with feminism and equality written explicitly into its constitution. To paraphrase Laurie Penny, “Democracy without feminism is no democracy worth having.”
Okay but the people doing the foisting of dictators are not going to be the ones harmed by a Trump presidency. It’s going to be the most vulnerable and marginalized people inside the US who have never asked to have this shit done in their names and it’s likely to harm people outside of the US too. Trump is bad for the whole planet. I’m glad you got the chance to feel superior though. That’s the important thing here.
I hope whatever desperate and legal measure works because the alternative is death and destitution for many vulnerable demographics.
History Nerd:
http://www.cfr.org/nonstate-actors-and-nongovernmental-organizations/foreign-agents-registration-act-fara/p33431
“The term ”agent of a foreign principal” does not include any news or press service”
I think that’s how BBC, CBC, RA1, TV5, etc etc don’t register, which under your analysis they should. Though indeed the clause goes on and on and seems to end up with the concept that news organizations should register if they aren’t US-owned, news orgs currently don’t.
Trump supporters on Twitter keep saying these articles present no proof. And yet they expect us to believe that ”spirit cooking” and Pizzagate are credible.
If anybody else has been following the Palmer Report, basically an ongoing record of any electoral fraud that’s surfaced during the recount so far (spoiler alert: All of it. All of the electoral fraud. Just flat-out tossing away D votes and pulling R votes out of their asses)… Yeah, this wasn’t an election, it was a dictatorial coup.
Absolutely. If you are an American, call EC voters and tell them they don’t have to vote for Trump. In fact, they are there to make sure someone like Trump isn’t elected.
Organize before it is too late.
THIS is hilarious.
So Hillary says during her campaign that if Trump wins, Russia will go to war with us.
Now, Hillbots and the deeply compromised CIA are shrieking that Russian WANTED Trump to win. So that they could go to war with us?
Meanwhile Putin has gone on the record publicly to state that a Trump win means Russia WILL NOT go to war, whereas a Hillary win would have meant certain war.
What to believe, what to believe…
And you guys think WE are the conspiracy theorists?!?
This article is on the front page of the Washington Post, above the fold. Also on the front page, above the fold, is an article that says all the generals Trump is hiring agree that our country’s greatest threat is radical Islam. Also maybe Iran.
No, we’re not going to do shit about Russia.
PS In related news, yesterday I turned on NPR just in time to hear a lovely interview of some Trump-supporters-on-the-street, who said that all the Trump haters out there need to get over it. Brilliant work, NPR, I’m sure they’ll start being nice to you any day now.
Putin (Trump)won, the Saudis(Clinton) lost.
this seems overly hostile to the marginalized and vulnerable innocent people within the us
it sort of sounds like a suggestion that we deserve what happens to us because of our nation of origin
this seems overly hostile to the marginalized and vulnerable innocent people within the us
it sort of sounds like a suggestion that we deserve what happens to us because of our nation of origin