Whiny Little Bitch

Happy As Clams

Trump supporters are happy as clams. Take Mr. David Gubert of Louisiana for example.

Like the Willises, he ruminated on what it would mean if the Russians had gotten involved, and possibly even swung the election. But Mr. Gubert came to a different conclusion. 

“If that’s what it took,” he said, “I’m glad they did it.”

He's glad that the Russians hacked the DNC servers and ran a successful propaganda campaign.

Wow...

The rest of the folks in the piece seem to not believe that it happened. This jibes with I've seen on Quora. This question and this question contain answers that really show the true colors of these "patriots." Thankfully, with the first question, we have the amazing and talented Sophia de Tricht to offer her expert insight of the document in question. Since she used to be an intelligence analyst, it stands to reason that she knows quite a bit of this sort of thing. Her entire answer is awesome but here's my favorite part.

My point is, when the entire IC comes together, as 16 different agencies with differing, often conflicting or at least adversarial missions and goals, and says anything with one voice, it’s been examined every single way it can be, and what you’re reading is as close to the truth as you’ll ever get without getting a clearance and joining one of these agencies.

Mic Drop.

Putin Directed Psi-Op and Hacking of 2016 Election

The National Intelligence agencies have released a declassified report that details exactly how Vladimir Putin and Russian intelligence intentionally interfered with the 2016 US election. In what is no doubt the greatest psi op and propaganda campaign every successfully executed against the United States, Putin directed his intelligence operatives to help Donald Trump win the presidency.

Of course, he had a lot of help from conservatives in this country who all too willingly filled up their brains with Russian propaganda via Russia Today (mentioned extensively in the report), the Drudge Report, Zerohedge, and various other conservative media outlets including Fox News who parrots much these site's talking points.

It's genius when you think about it. Hack into both the DNC and the RNC and release the dirt on the former for the kittens to lap up like milk. Hold the latter over the incoming president (who owes you a shit ton of money as well) and Republicans in Congress and PRESTO! You have yourself a weakened United States hegemonic power which you can now manipulate in your favor.

Vladimir Putin has for many years wanted to extend his global influence and with his puppet now in the White House he's pretty much set. Add in all the right wing bloggers and commnenters out there who hate liberals so much that they are willing to give up all of their convictions just for the childish win and it's going to be extremely hard to stop these folks.

I think I get it now. When conservatives foamed at the mouth about this....

...they became perfect conduits for propaganda to enable the very outcome they fear.

Thanks, assholes!! I hope that we can clean up your mess in 2018.

Our New President

So let me see if I have this straight....

1) Trump owes Blackstone/ Bayrock group $560 million dollars (one of his largest debtors and the primary reason he won't reveal his tax returns)

2) Blackstone is owned wholly by Russian billionaires, who owe their position to Putin and have made billions from their work with the Russian government.

3) Other companies that have borrowed from Blackstone have claimed that owing money to them is like owing to the Russian mob and while you owe them, they own you for many favors.

4) The Russian economy is badly faltering under the weight of its over-dependence on raw materials which as you know have plummeted in the last 2 years leaving the Russian economy scrambling to pay its debts.

5) Russia has an impetus to influence our election to ensure the per barrel oil prices are above $65 ( they are currently hovering around $50)

6) Russia can't affordably get at 80% of its oil reserves and reduce its per barrel cost to compete with America at $45 or Saudi Arabia at $39. With Iranian sanctions being lifted Russia will find another inexpensive competitor increasing production and pushing Russia further down the list of suppliers.

As for Iranian sanctions, the 6 countries lifting them allowing Iran to collect on the billions it is owed for pumping oil but not being paid for it. These billions Iran can only get if the Iranian nuclear deal is signed. Trump spoke of ending the deals which would cause oil sales sanctions to be reimposed, which would make Russian oil more competitive.

7) Rex Tillerson (Trump's pick for Secretary of State) is the head of ExxonMobil, which is in possession of patented technology that could help Putin extract 45% more oil at a significant cost savings to Russia, helping Putin put money in the Russian coffers to help reconstitute its military and finally afford to mass produce the new and improved systems that it had invented before the Russian economy had slowed so much.

8) Putin cannot get access to these new cost saving technologies OR outside oil field development money, due to US sanctions on Russia, because of its involvement in Ukrainian civil war.

9) Look for Trump to end sanctions on Russia and to back out of the Iranian nuclear deal, to help Russia rebuild its economy, strengthen Putin and make Tillerson and Trump even richer, thus allowing Trump to satisfy his creditors at Blackstone.

10) With Trump's fabricated hatred of NATO and the U.N., the Russian military reconstituted, the threat to the Baltic states is real. Russia retaking their access to the Baltic Sea from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and threatening the shipping of millions of cubic feet of natural gas to lower Europe from Scandinavia, allowing Russia to make a good case for its oil and gas being piped into eastern Europe.

(Sources: Time Magazine, NY Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian UK.)

It's painfully obvious that Trump is completely beholden to Russian interests hence his refusal to accept the facts about the hacking.

Because of Computers

Donald Trump is still refusing to accept the reality of Russia (Putin) using propaganda to affect the outcome of the 2016 election.

Trump — who, for extra flair, spoke with an American- and Israeli-flag-wielding Don King at his side — blamed the whole controversy on the confusing nature of “computers.” “I think that computers have complicated lives very greatly. The whole age of the computer has made it where nobody knows exactly what’s going on,” he said. “We have speed, we have a lot of other things, but I’m not sure we have the kind of security we need.”

He sounds as bad as Hillary did when wondered if you could scrub a hard drive with cloth. Also, this is not a good image for the president elect...

Just sayin'...

By the way, speaking of election meddling...what happened to all those mouth foamed cries of voter fraud? Now, it's not as rampant since Trump won?

Once again, voter fraud is very rare in this country and in no way did it affect the outcome of the 2016 election. There's a big difference between the hacking of emails combined with the spread of propaganda through fake news to an all too gullible conservative population and the hacking of actual voting machines. The latter never happened and there was virtually zero voter fraud.

Propaganda 101

Take a look at the image below.

For me and other citizens living in the US, this represents right about where all the various media outlets fall in terms of political bias. Yet, the right wing blogger mentality that will sadly soon be running our nation would see this and howl in derision. All those "useful idiots" in the middle? Yeah, they're all secret communist agents. Fox is more middle of the road. And the Daily Caller, Drudge and Zerohedge? Well, they are the only truth tellers out there, dammit!!

This is EXACTLY how Donald Trump won the election.

Paul Krugman has a great piece up called "Useful Idiots Galore" which perfectly summarizes how much like a fiddle we were all played. In particular, his comments about the mainstream media were dead on right.

The bigger surprise was the behavior of the news media, and I don’t mean fake news; I mean big, prestigious organizations. Leaked emails, which everyone knew were probably the product of Russian hacking, were breathlessly reported as shocking revelations, even when they mostly revealed nothing more than the fact that Democrats are people. Meanwhile, the news media dutifully played up the Clinton server story, which never involved any evidence of wrongdoing, but merged in the public mind into the perception of a vast “email” scandal when there was nothing there.

I completely agree. But there's something deeper that Krugman has missed. Propaganda 101 tells us that the first thing you have to do is get a good chunk of people to stop listening to trusted news sources. After that, it's merely a matter of introducing alternative news sources that don't cause heads to hurt (see: cognitive dissonance.). Enter the Drudge Report, Zerohedge, InfoWars and, of course, Fox News...all of which peddled pro-Russian stories the entire election. What does all this amount to?

President Donald Trump.

What a bunch of suckers. Putin probably has daily stomach aches from laughing at how easy it was to fool so many Americans. When US hegemonic power begins to erode in the world because of all of this and we start to see hints of authoritarianism here at home, will they still find a way to blame liberals?

Or will they finally understand what they have done and accept responsibility?

The President's Press Conference

A stunning press conference and, I have to say, one that really pissed me off. One of the president's biggest faults is to under react to situations. He sure did when he found out that Russia and Putin personally hacked the DNC and the RNC. You didn't want a scrum, Mr. President?

Well, life is messy...sorry to be the one to inform you...sheesh.

Hi, I'm A Puppet

TRUMP: I'm a 'smart person,' don't need intelligence briefings every single day

Translation: "I'm a puppet of authoritarians in league with Vladimir Putin."

Full interview below...

Russia's Hacking Department

Good Words

From Frank Foer at Slate....

The DNC dump may not have revealed a conspiracy that could end a candidacy, but it succeeded in casting a pall of anxiety over this election. We know that the Russians have a further stash of documents from the DNC and another set of document purloined from the Clinton Foundation. 

In other words, Vladimir Putin is now treating American democracy with the same respect he accords his own. The best retaliation isn’t a military one, or to respond in kind. It’s to defeat his pet candidate and to force him to watch the inauguration of the woman he so abhors.

Conservatives Heart Russia

Conservatives like to foam at the mouth when it comes to big government and how we are becoming like Russia. Right wing bloggers, especially the gun bloggers, are constantly referring to the liberals leading us into a Soviet style autocracy, still seeing that commie boogieman just around the corner. Remember this?

Given all this, their rush to support Trump, even as a hold your nose candidate, deeply perplexes me. Because it's becoming quite clear that Vladimir Putin wants Donald Trump to be president.

Franklin Foer has been writing about their relationship for several months now. Trump's continued call to not necessarily back NATO allies  seems very suspicious indeed given this information. More interesting is the recent evidence that the release of DNC emails was perpetrated by Russian intelligence.

Given all of this, we can now develop a working theory and must proceed in gathering more evidence. Donald Trump is basically in league with Vladimir Putin, likely through various business dealings (hence the reason why he won't release his tax returns), and would like to model his presidency on the Russian leader's reign. He has continually praised Putin in various interviews, calling him "very bright" and a "strong leader."

In short, he wants to be the US Putin and conservatives are helping him achieve this goal. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that we see how incredibly hypocritical these dickehads are but this seems far more d baggy. They continually caterwaul and fear monger about our country becoming Russia and they are mindlessly flocking to the guy who is going to do just that.

Wow...

The President's Long Game Works Again

Russia’s sovereign credit rating downgraded to junk

Ukraine and Gaza: A Brief Analysis

I've had several thoughts I've wanted to get out about the situations in Israel and Ukraine but I thought it prudent to wait a bit for events to unfold. AP News has two great pieces up which summarize the ongoing issues with Russia over the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 and the Israeli operation in Gaza as of this morning.

My first reaction when I heard that the airline was shot down by pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine was anger. We know what these guys are doing and they are bragging about it as Nikto noted the other day. Shouldn't we work with Ukraine to target these anti-aircraft missiles and take them out? Obviously, the answer is no and it's because we really need the buy in from Europe. This is a regional problem and the EU, in particular, Germany, haven't really shown much of an interest in escalation due to the Russian natural gas supply they need. This sentiment was recently echoed by Germany's finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble.

"Economic interests are not the top priority. The top priority is ensuring stability and peace," Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

Classic double speak. The Germans are more interested in making sure they stay on the Russian energy teat and are hoping that somehow all of this just works itself out. Until they and other EU leaders change their mind and are willing to make sacrifices, we will be largely powerless to do anything. Honestly, they are being tremendously naive

Israel's efforts in Gaza are the exact opposite of naive. They recognize the problem and are moving to eliminate the threat with best possible speed. I make no bones about being fervently pro-Israel and completely support their mission to end the rocket launches by Hamas. No doubt I feel tremendous sadness over the loss of Palestinian children but the blame for that is largely on Hamas who purposefully place their base of operations near innocent civilians to score PR points with anti-Semitic press outlets.

At the very core of Hamas's ideology is the destruction of Israel. They are no different than Nazi Germany and if they are serious about helping their people, they will stop being violent and start advocating within the political process peacefully. That is the one area where Israel needs to be flexible. I've written about this previously but the only way I see out of this mess is a one state solution. There will never be a country of Palestine. Tareq Abbas is right

In the long run, Israel is going to come out much better as a result of this conflict. Vladamir Putin, however, will not. The EU may be dragging their feat but the writing is already on the wall. This was Putin's massive failure and miscalculation and the Russian economy is going to pay dearly for it.

What Would A Libertarian Do?

The recent 30 year natural gas deal between Russia and China has me wondering....what would a libertarian president do about this? Given their isolationist tendencies, they would likely do nothing and let the free market do what it will.

But is that effective in the age of globalization? And does it leave the United States more vulnerable from the standpoint of economic competition (i.e. the new "world war")?

The Heart and Soul of Russia

I always have a copy of Roberts and Westad's History of the World handy whenever I need it. It's a great source for a basic overview of...well...everything in human history. I was thumbing through it yesterday for some information on the crusades when I came across this on page 378.

Half a century or so after the legendary Rurik, Rus was a reality: a sort of river-federation centered on Kiev and linking the Baltic to the Black Sea. It was pagan, but when civilization and Christianity came to it, it would be because of the easy access to Byzantium which water gave to the young principality, which was first designated as Rus in 945. Its unity was still very loose. An incoherent structure was made even less rigid by the Vikings adoption of Slav principle which divided an inheritance. Rus princes tended to move around rulers among the centres of the principality, of which Kiev and Novgorod were the main ones. Nevertheless, the family of Kiev became the most important.

This summarizes why Ukraine is so vital to Russian interests. It is their origin point as a culture and the very foundation of their identity in the world. Beyond mere economic reasons, it is their heart and soul and they will fight for as much of it as possible.

Hit The Russian Parts!

Ukraine Inks Deal With EU

The EU and the Ukraine signed an association agreement yesterday but it got little notice in the press. Odd, considering that this was the spark that lit the flame which started all the instability in the region. Perhaps the "liberal" media has become too obsessed with either the "Obama is weak" meme or wringing their hands over the "fact" that "Obama is weak"

Regardless, the focus should be on this agreement because it's exactly why Vladimir Putin has already lost. It is the first step of trade and economic integration with Europe that won't stop with Ukraine.

The EU also announced it will speed up similar association deals with Georgia and Moldova, it said in its statement: The European Union reconfirms its objective to further strengthen the political association and economic integration with Georgia and the Republic of Moldova. We confirm our aim to sign the Association Agreements, including the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Areas, which we initiated in Vilnius last November, no later than June 2014.

As I have said many times in the past, the West's soft, economic power always wins in the long run. Sooner or later, Putin will have no choice but to fall in line like everyone else.

Change Up

It looks like there is a distinct possibility that a strike against Syria may be delayed or even not happen at all. A conversation between the president and Vladimir Putin at last week's G20 meeting sparked a Russian overture to the Syrians to allow their chemical weapons to be placed under UN control or possibly destroyed all together. Taken with a grain of salt, this is good news.

Assuming they allow such a thing to happen, this would head off an attack by the US and might actually start the country back towards stability once again. If the UN is allowed in for this purpose, it might be able to spread its influence around the country and be able to be our eyes and ears on the ground in Syria. We can monitor what Assad is up to and gauge our response accordingly.

This also gets Congress off the hook from having to make a very tough vote. Now they can back to the business of being silly about the budget, health care, and immigration.