Thursday, March 02, 2017

Donald Trump and the Russian Connection



Donald Trump must have hoped he would be able to bury the Russian election hacking story, in some dark place where nobody could ever find it.

Or shred it, or burn it.

So he could say if there is no evidence, it never happened.



It's just FAKE NEWS.

But unfortunately for him, if that was his plan, it just became a lot harder.





Now that we know the Obama administration is ensuring that intelligence is preserved.  

In the Obama administration’s last days, some White House officials scrambled to spread information about Russian efforts to undermine the presidential election — and about possible contacts between associates of President-elect Donald J. Trump and Russians — across the government.

Former American officials say they had two aims: to ensure that such meddling isn’t duplicated in future American or European elections, and to leave a clear trail of intelligence for government investigators.


So it can be used against Trump and his associates, to make sure the investigation continues, a special prosecutor is appointed.

And the truth finally emerges.

No American president should be allowed to govern with the shadow of treason hanging over him.

And now that Trump's Attorney General, the grotesque bigot Jeff Sessions, is being accused of lying to Congress about his meetings with the Russian ambassador. 



Attorney General Jeff Sessions met twice last year with the top Russian diplomat in Washington whose interactions with President Donald Trump's former national security adviser Mike Flynn led to Flynn's firing, according to the Justice Department. Sessions did not mention either meeting during his confirmation hearings when he said he knew of no contacts between Trump surrogates and Russians. 

And now that the ambassador is being described as a senior Russian intelligence agent.

Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador, is considered by US intelligence to be one of Russia's top spies and spy-recruiters in Washington, according to current and former senior US government officials.

If the Republicans try to block an investigation it would be political suicide. 

In short: Where there's smoke and smoke and smoke and smoke and smoke, most reasonable people will assume there is fire — or that there should be an independent investigation to determine whether there is fire. Arguing that “there's nothing to see here” is simply not a tenable position for Republicans at this point.

Whether anything will come out of that investigation remains to be seen. But it doesn't really matter.

Trump will be damaged and diminished...



Once he begged the Russians to hack Hillary Clinton's e-mails.

Soon he'll be begging for mercy.... 

25 comments:

Percival said...

Simon, you'very outdone yourself with that last graphic!

Willy said...

Brilliant pic at the end. Nice work Simon.

David said...

It’s Time for a Grand Jury on Trump and Russia | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6zYwKIhwsA

*
Playlist: The Resistance with Keith Olbermann
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0hKMB1-xkc-XWNf9VL-LxVYysdHpjyMF

Anonymous said...

When this mob goes down I will have to take a few days off work because I won't be able to stop dancing.

David said...

Why the FBI and a Special Prosecutor Must Immediately Investigate Attorney General Jeff Sessions

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/03/02/why-the-fbi-and-a-special-prosecutor-must-immediately-investigate-attorney-general-jeff-sessions.html

A Political Junkie said...

Here is an article that compares the nuclear stockpiles of the United States and Russia:

http://viableopposition.blogspot.ca/2017/01/nuclear-superpowers-and-impact-of.html

Despite the signing of various international treaties limiting the expansion of nuclear weaponry by nations that already have nuclear weapons and those who want them for their own purposes, the world still has enough nuclear weapons to destroy itself several times over.

jrkrideau said...

Sorry but this is one point where I disagree with you Simon.

Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador, is considered by US intelligence to be one of Russia's top spies and spy-recruiters in Washington, according to current and former senior US government officials.

And you believe unnamed US government officials? If so perhaps we can discuss some retirement propertoiy in Lanark County a bit north of Highway 7.

One of few (err only one?) of the Trump foreign affairs moves seems to that been to try to create better relations with Russia.

One may not be totally fond of Putin but then how many innocent people has Obama killed in drone strikes?

Anonymous said...

Perhaps Russia is behind some of the hacking but the bigger story is the weaponizaton of social media to achieve a political end.The various pieces of technology have been around for some time and bits and pieces were likely used to promote change in targeted countries such as the Arab Spring and the Russian Democracy movement. Unfortunately the latter ended in front of the Kremlin when the opposition leader was assisinated by "terrorists".

Whether it was with the help of Russia,Mercer the big data hedge fund guru or a combination of both the Trumpians clearly won the last social media war. Fortunately the US has strong Federal and State institutions so the virtual war did not spill over into a street war and so far no one had to be assassinated to quell it. Its possible a tipping point has been reached with a slightly more subdued Trump, Flynn gone, Sessions recursed. Whats next... Bannon shrunk or gone?
The basic components of a weaponized social media are A)detailed profiling of individuals,hot button words,retweet & comment frequency,those followed and friends.B)script bots that can flood social media on command to trigger the impression its a massive movement.C)hundreds of domain sites essentially containing the same message but tweaked to the target audience with respect to facts, persuasive bias and tone.d)Overriding AI program to coordinate the movement and resonate with the words the benefactor utters or tweets as the case may be. Perhaps illegal in Canada as it is political in nature and takes dollars to implement but not in the US unless a foreign power is involved.
Welcome to the virtual age of democracy and its just getting started!
RT

Anonymous said...

Trump's UK visit will shift to Scotland "to deter protests." ROFLMAO!!! This ought to be good!

Anonymous said...

Not mine, but worth sharing.

https://i.redd.it/iqqmequm50jy.png

Anonymous said...

Oh neat, whataboutism

Anonymous said...

The following article gives a good overview on how to hack an election including manipulating/weaponizing social media. https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-how-to-hack-an-election/
RT

David said...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/there-was-nothing-presidential-about-trumps-speech/2017/03/02/b144b848-ff8a-11e6-99b4-9e613afeb09f_story.html

Anonymous said...

Anon 8:46, Touche.

Simon said...

Hi Percival...I'm glad you liked that graphic, but sadly I can't claim the credit. I got it from a friend of mine on the rebel internet. I have been studying for a big exam, so I haven't had much time to make my own. However after being praised for somebody else's work, I'll be going back to the drawing board as soon as I can !!! ;)

Simon said...

Hi Willy...nice to hear from you, I hope you are happy and well. As I told Percival I'm afraid that last graphic is not mine. But it is great isn't it? I have all the elements saved but haven't had the time to put them together. It's so embarrassing to be praised by a great digital artist like you, for something I didn't do, but as I told Percival I'm heading back to the drawing board as soon as I can... :(

Simon said...

Hi David....thanks for the links. I wish a grand jury could weigh in on the matter, but unless there is a big break, I can't see that happening for a while....

Simon said...

Hi anon...well that'll make two of us. I still have trouble believing the orange oaf is president, but I guarantee you the day he goes down billions will be dancing all over the world....

Simon said...

Hi political junkie....It's absolutely insane, as is Trump's plan to boost military spending by $54 billion. The U.S. Already spends more on the military than the other seven countries behind it combined. And history teaches us that huge arms build ups only encourage others and can only make war more likely...

Simon said...

Hi jrk....I'm only reporting what others are saying, and not being judgemental. Both sides spy on each other all the time. However having said that, i don't believe that Trump's objective is simply to improve relations with the Russians. He's not that high minded, so I still believe that either he has an ulterior motive like business interests, or that the Russians have something on him. And how can you explain the massive increase in Pentagon spending? That can only force to Russians to try to match that, and does nothing to normalize relations between the two countries. I can't help but believe that there is something out there we don't know about, and the sooner we find out what it is, the safer we'll all be...

Simon said...

Hi RT....I agree with you, the weaponization of cuberspace is the larger problem. For not only are troll armies and bots spreading disinformation, The major powers are also creating cyber armies that could cripple their enemies in the lead up to war. Our reliance on computers is making us all more vulnerable. A few years ago we were concerned about the amount of info big businesses were collecting on us. Now when we look up anything on Google we are not surprised to see any magazine we read displaying ads for that product. Or are not unduly bothered by the way companies demand to know our geolocation at any given time. The day we end up in a dictatorship will be the day we finally realize what we have done....

Simon said...

Hi anon....thanks for alerting me to that alarming or hilarious development. Scotland may not have the numbers to match the anti-Trump demos he could face in the south. But believe me he is absolutely detested in Scotland, and when we paint our faces blue and charge at him the Orange Bully will run.... ;)

Simon said...

Hi anon....that's funny, it's exactly what I thought when I read what Sessions had said. I really detest that ugly little Klan lover, and the only person I'd like to see go down more is Trump himself....

Anonymous said...

One of my favourite signs from his last visit read, "Yer maw was an immigrant ya fucken orange bawbag!"

Unknown said...

So I guess the FBI under Obama just was lying when they said they found no eveidence of a Trump/Russia connection? If that be the case, then one must wonder what else they may have been less than honest about... Like say, the investigation into Clinton's blatantly criminal private email server???