Tuesday Reads: The Russian Connection
Posted: October 11, 2016 Filed under: just because 37 Comments
Good Afternoon!!
I’m at a disadvantage today because I’m writing this on a very old computer. I may not be able to quote from some articles, because they won’t open up all the way on this thing. But I’ll do the best I can until I can figure out how to replace my dead 2-year-old computer.
Like most decent people, I’m still recovering from the horror of that debate on Sunday night; and it looks like Trump’s behavior could get even worse over the next few weeks before the election. I doubt if Trump will stop even if he loses. We all need to take care of ourselves physically, mentally, and emotionally for a tough time ahead for our country.
This morning Trump has been tweeting up a storm, and he sounds demented.
This one sounds like a threat.
There are a couple more about the “disloyalty” of Republicans, and Trump says “They don’t know how to win – I will teach them!”
It’s still hard to believe this new reality–a madman running for president of the US on a major party ticket. But this is our world now.
Russia is till releasing hacked emails from the Clinton campaign through Wikileaks, andby the media is eating them up. Fortunately, they are pretty boring so far. But it’s quite disturbing to learn that Donald Trump is getting them before they are published by Russian propaganda outlets. This is especially worrying after Trump claimed in Sunday night’s debate that no one knows who is behind the hacks or even whether there is hacking at all.
The Washington Post editorial board: Donald Trump, Putin’s puppet.
ON FRIDAY, while much of the country was preoccupied with the latest revelations about Donald Trump, the U.S. intelligence community made an alarming and unprecedented announcement: Russia was seeking “to interfere with the U.S. election process” through the hacking of political organizations and individuals, including the Democratic National Committee. The statement rightly alarmed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who said in Sunday night’s debate that “we have never in the history of our country been in a situation where an adversary, a foreign power, is working so hard to influence the outcome of the election.”
And Mr. Trump? Once again, the GOP nominee played the part of Vladimir Putin’s lawyer. “She doesn’t know if it’s the Russians doing the hacking,” he said of Ms. Clinton. “Maybe there is no hacking.” Mr. Trump is receiving classified intelligence briefings, so he is certainly aware of the evidence that hackers backed by Moscow have stolen email and other records from the DNC and tried to penetrate state electoral systems. So why does he deny it? Mr. Trump’s advocacy on behalf of an aggressive U.S. rival, and the opaqueness of his motivation, is one of the most troubling aspects of his thoroughly toxic campaign.
Experts differ on whether the Putin regime is trying to tip the election to Mr. Trump, as Ms. Clinton suggested, or merely to sow confusion and distrust about the integrity of U.S. democracy. But the leaks traced to Russia through the WikiLeaks website have been aimed at Ms. Clinton — most recently emails from her campaign chairman revealing excerpts from her private speeches on Wall Street. The timing of the WikiLeaks releases, clearly calculated to do maximum damage to the Democrats, confirms (again) that the website is not a crusader for transparency, but a willing political agent of the Kremlin.
(Emphasis added.) Click the link to read the rest.
In a speech yesterday in Pennsylvania, Donald Trump quoted from a false story released by the Russian government outlet Sputnik. Trump claimed to be reading a quote from Sidney Blumenthal (a Clinton friend with whom right wing conspiracy nuts are obsessed), but what he read was actually a quote from an article by Kurt Eichenwald. Read about it at Newsweek: Dear Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, I Am Not Sidney Blumenthal.
An email from Blumenthal—a confidant of Hillary Clinton and a man, second only to George Soros, at the center of conservative conspiracy theories—turned up in the recentdocument dump by WikiLeaks. At a time when American intelligence believes Russian hackers are trying to interfere with the presidential election, records have been fed recently to WikiLeaks out of multiple organizations of the Democratic Party, raising concerns that the self-proclaimed whistleblower group has become a tool of Putin’s government. But now that I have been brought into the whole mess—and transformed into Blumenthal—there is even more proof that the Russians are not only orchestrating this act of cyberwar but also really, really dumb.
The evidence emerged thanks to the incompetence of Sputnik, the Russian online news and radio service established by the government-controlled news agency, Rossiya Segodnya.
As I wrote above, the quote was from an article by Echenwald that Blumenthal forwarded to John Podesta, and it was wildly out of context.
This is not funny. It is terrifying. The Russians engage in a sloppy disinformation effort and, before the day is out, the Republican nominee for president is standing on a stage reciting the manufactured story as truth. How did this happen? Who in the Trump campaign was feeding him falsehoods straight from the Kremlin? (The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.)
Read the rest at Newsweek.
Read Amanda Marcotte’s take on this at Salon (I can’t quote from the piece because of my old computer): Russian propaganda on WikiLeaks makes its way into a Donald Trump speech in record time. The Russian outlet Sputnik briefly published a misleading article, but Trump had it before it was taken down.
It certainly looks like the Trump campaign is getting fed leaks directly from the Russian government or it’s state-controlled media. Based on Trump’s behavior at the debate–claiming not to know whether Russia did the hacks–I have to question whether the CIA should be giving him any more confidential briefings.
At the Washington Post, Philip Bump makes the case that Eichenwald is assuming a Russian connection where there isn’t one. Maybe some conspiracy nut just told the campaign about it. Okay, but Bump’s own editorial board is concerned about the Trump-Russia connection and so is the US intelligence community.
I’m sorry to make this post so brief, but it has taken me hours to get this much done. I have more links for you that I’ll put in comments. What stories are you following today?
peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
mablue2
Mama Lopez
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Washington Post editorial board: Scandal! Wikileaks reveals Hillary Clinton to be . . . reasonable.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/scandal-wikileaks-reveals-hillary-clinton-to-be–reasonable/2016/10/10/bbad509c-8f19-11e6-9c52-0b10449e33c4_story.html?postshare=7421476188208695&tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.9c62c0765c3d
This is fantastic. I was just watching two of the MSNBC guys (With All Due Respect) laboring painfully to make something of the latest Wikileaks emails. They were zoned in on the comments from some consultant guy about Chelsea being spoiled and another where there was some hint or implication that Donna Brazile tipped Clinton off about one of the questions to be asked in a Town Hall. Finally, one of the guys gave up and just admitted that everything in the emails released so far was all “insider baseball” that no one cares about.
I can understand Republicans trying to make something of some of the emails (although not the way they lie about what’s in them), but I’m STILL amazed by how craven and disingenuous they are. GIVE It UP PEOPLE.
Literary Hub: Not Just Trump: The South’s Progressive Roots Run Deep.
http://lithub.com/not-just-trump-the-souths-progressive-roots-run-deep/
That was an interesting read………..a nice blend, and good beat.
The Daily Beast: Former Donald Trump Executive: He’s a Supreme Sexist.
http://lithub.com/not-just-trump-the-souths-progressive-roots-run-deep/
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/10/11/former-donald-trump-executive-he-s-a-supreme-sexist.html
BB – I know you’re having problems with your computer, so I put the Daily Beast link in here. Hope you don’t mind.
Thanks. I goofed on that one.
Understandable. This weekend I read where a early computer was used in 1960’s in this particular building, and it weighed over 3,000 lbs. It was Sunday, and I couldn’t get in to see it. Darn.
Thanx Delphyne. Res, said exactly what I’ve been saying, he walks on water and think he is God. Let me add, he intends to give his Policy to God.
It’s honestly unimaginable that we would have a presidential candidate and one leading the ticket of the Republican party to boot, who was working with a foreign government and RUSSIA at that, to undermine our election and our government. This is absolutely surreal and I am hoping with every ounce of strength in my body that the day after the election, Trump and all of his cronies are indicted for crimes against the republic. I can’t believe this is happening. I so wish my dad were alive so I could talk to him about this. It’s unreal.
It’s so bizarre that I can’t assimilate Trump passing on Russian propaganda at his rallies. I may have to mute 3 times more than listen to what makes me unsettled and troubled about our future. I pray he crashes and burns — soon.
It truly is, my mother would have slapped him up and down the wall.
So interesting BB! I’m glad journalists are paying attention to the Trump – Russia connection. I don’t doubt for one minute he’s got personal ties with people there who provide him with information.
http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/10/11/13237160/hillary-clinton-child-tax-credit
Hillary Clinton is proposing a policy to tackle deep poverty
Does anyone believe Trump would even know how to go about something like this – irregardless whether it would ever enter his mind?
We simply MUST win the Senate and House for Hillary!
No. He only operates in lizard brain mode.
Plus those people are just “losers” to him. They should have gotten a “small” loan from Daddy and gone into business, if they had any initiative.
Spot on.
No, he’d be scratching his ass on this one. Although he’d be preaching he knows all about taxes, and tax dollars!
I really hope that this Plan to lift up families happens, and soon. There will probably be a whole lot more to go with this program for women and children, and child tax credit. It’s always been working with those at the top, and filtering down. Never seems to work. I think starting at the bottom my inject a boost to bring millions out of the poverty level. Cause I tell you I want to puke thinking families are making $3,500.00 a year. The disparity is so friggin unbelievable. It’s got to work for the poor, that means families, and that means real help, not something that puts a face on it for show, but real lives……….health care, lunches, dinners, and out of pocket expenses families need to get by. I am on board with Hillary
Clinton, let’s lift women and children out of poverty.
Is Trump A “Trigger”? According To Many Women’s Reactions To Last Night’s Debate, The Answer Is “Yes”
http://bust.com/feminism/18337-is-trump-a-trigger-according-to-women-s-reactions-to-last-night-s-debate-the-answer-is-yes.html
It seems that many women agree on this!
My 31 year old Granddaughter called me Monday after work to tell me that the debate upset her so badly that she couldn’t finish watching it. She said that when he started stalking her she became “anxious”. She thought he might “attack” her on stage. She said that when he called Hillary the “devil” that was all she could watch. My oldest daughter experienced similar feelings when she watched the debate. Every female friend I have say that they had the same visceral reaction to his stalking and him berating her that I had. I can’t imagine that most women didn’t experience what we felt.
You know it BB. That bothered me a whole lot, and I suggested to the DNC that we begin to stop the abuse in these debates. No yelling, or screaming, no stalking, no breathing down someone’s back, and drug testing. It was not good, and I am afraid it might get worst.
I read the one article by Janine Driver, who lent her opinion as to the possibility of violence against her.
I’ve seen a useful point made (don’t remember where. Feminist Current?) that triggers are just one aspect.
Yes, everyone, including presidential candidates, should be polite enough to avoid acting like a walking nightmare.
But there’s also anger. We have every right to be furious and disgusted by The Be-cheetoed Dogpile’s attempts at intimidation.
Triggers implies the issue is in *women’s* past experience.
Anger says it’s because *he* is being a turd. He deserves anger. Tsunamis of it.
Very good point, quixote! As one of my women karate teachers said: “Fear Into Anger!” I was triggered and I was also furious.
Please look for Sam Bee’s show on the pussy grab and the debate. I will try to find the links if I can. Our internet is giving problems.
The other two video clips are after this one. Be sure to watch them all.
And here is another Randy Rainbow classic
Great combo, sing it Randy.
Love Samantha Bee!
What a flash back. Oh yeah, downstairs! And Georgia O’keefe painting, and not hiding behind a bale of hay! Yes, sharing this one. Samantha gifted us when she did this one.
We need a change mmercials of these Syrian children dying “This is what refugees look like.” It is easy support the ban when you convince yourself that the refugees look like Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. It is children and families being slaughtered.
Autocorrect is ruining my life. We need commercials saying”this is what refugees look like. ”
Not children dying, sheesh. Sorry.
I hate autocorrect/autocomplete. I have it turned off.
Talked with a few more friends today. Of course the women noticed Trump’s stalking behavior, but a number of men did, too. That heartens me.
About East Texas voters and then some
Astute
https://www.texasobserver.org/east-texas-trump-voters-lansdale/
That seems to sum it up. Hope the y do not outnumber us on election day May they rest in pieces