Target. Manipulate. Brainwash.

I wonder how all the right wing bloggers and commenters feel now that the truth has come to light regarding how they were microtargeted by members of the Trump campaign and the Russian government.

Congressional and Justice Department investigators are focusing on whether Trump’s campaign pointed Russian cyber operatives to certain voting jurisdictions in key states – areas where Trump’s digital team and Republican operatives were spotting unexpected weakness in voter support for Hillary Clinton, according to several people familiar with the parallel inquiries.

Boom, son!

Also under scrutiny is the question of whether Trump associates or campaign aides had any role in assisting the Russians in publicly releasing thousands of emails, hacked from the accounts of top Democrats, at turning points in the presidential race, mainly through the London-based transparency web site WikiLeaks.

Double boom, son!

I posted this the other day but it's worth repeating. Several times.

A Second Look At Russians Officials

US Intelligence officials are taking a second look at conversations that took place among members of the Russian government in the run up to the 2016 election, the Wall Street Journal is reporting. In some cases, the Russians in the overheard conversations talked about meetings held outside the U.S. involving Russian government officials and Trump business associates or advisers, these people said.

According to the report, it looks like a lot of this began at the 2013 Miss Universe pageant. The players are starting to come out of the woodwork and it's only a matter of time before all the pieces fall into place. The more Trump denies collusion the more he reveals himself to be more of an idiot than I thought he was.

Trump Now Under Investigation

President Trump has said for weeks that he is not under investigation. He claimed vindication after Comey's testimony last week. But now it appears that Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor in this case, is investigating Trump himself for possible obstruction of justice. As has been the case with past presidents, it's not the crime itself that they get dinged for. It's the cover up.

What could possibly be so bad about Russia that Trump would go to such lengths as to put himself in legal jeopardy?

Putin's Seal

I used to really like Jesse Ventura. He started off as an OK governor, for the most part. But he ended up like all those other loud and rebellious libertarians out there...not knowing what the fuck he was doing. They can bitch and bitch but they don't know how to actually solve any problems.

So, it's not surprising to me that he now works for RT. After all, his ideology fits perfectly with the audience they have captured-angry, old white people who hate both parties and are all too willing to be co-opted by Russian intelligence.

What happened to these folks? Is there hatred for liberals so great that they let it blind them from what is happening?

The New Russian Dupe, Clueless Person

I've now had more than a few emails regarding Kevin Baker's latest "uberpost" (see also: cut and paste job passed off as evidence of high intellect) entitled "The New Soviet Genderless Person." I still check in on Kevin from time to time to make sure he's still just blowing hot air and not actively fomenting domestic terrorism. It was nice to see that he still has me featured prominently on the sidebar of his web site. Years later, the obsession still continues from him and his followers.

It's actually serendipitous that some of my readers wanted me to comment on this latest piece. I was thinking about Kevin and other gun bloggers in general as I have realized something recently that was profoundly ironic. Consider that this is a group of people who WON'T REGISTER and WON'T TURN OVER THEIR GUNS. EVER!!!!  They bemoan government intrusion in their lovemaking to their guns and are terribly afraid of those smug, liberal elites getting a hold of too much information on them. And yet...

THEY PUT EVERYTHING ABOUT THEMSELVES AND THEIR GUNS ON THE FUCKING INTERNET!!!

Seriously, if I was working for the federal government, ATF division, why would I even need surveillance? I'd merely check out Kevin's blog to find out what kind of weapons he owned, where he lived, who he associated with and when he would be at the range. In fact, why do we even need registration when these guys are easily traceable and tracked? What a bunch of fucking morons...

It's this same stupidity that also leads to the massively ignorant mentality seen in this latest post on how evil liberals are going to turn us all into commies. All of the people that emailed me wondered...does Kevin not see the irony of this belief considering the deep connections between Trump and the current Russian regime? The answer is no, no he does not.

Like many on the right, Kevin believes that the entire Russian-Trump story is liberal propaganda. Never mind the fact that ALL of our intelligence agencies has confirmed Russian meddling in the last election. Never mind the fact that his meddling took the form of propaganda disseminated via the news sources that Kevin reads on a daily basis. Never mind the fact that President Trump fired James Comey and then MET WITH THE RUSSIANS IN THE OVAL OFFICE, BARRED US MEDIA FROM ENTERING, AND THEN LEAKED CLASSIFIED INFORMATION TO THEM.

And it's the liberals that are leading us down a Soviet path...

Wow...just wow...

I've come to the conclusion that folks like Kevin hate the fact that liberals are smarter and more accomplished than them so much that they are blinded to reality. Vladamir Putin and Russian intelligence knows this very, very well. Kevin tells them.

Rush Limbaugh was vilified for stating, after Obama won the Presidency the first time, "I hope he fails." Right now we're watching the Ruling Class and its enablers in the media do absolutely everything they can to pull off a coup d'état because the man who won the White House this go-around isn't one of them. He's not one of the New Genderless Persons who mean to Do Good, who Care About You, who just want to help.

Isn't one of them? Are you FUCKING kidding me? First of all, Donald Trump is a card carrying member of the Hollywood Elite. He had a show on NBC called "The Celebrity Apprentice." Like Rush Limbaugh, he is a rock solid member of the media who uses it to manipulate people like Kevin. In fact, I'd put quite a bit of money on the idea that he's merely playing a role.

Consider that he was a Democrat up until 2011 when he jumped on the birther bandwagon. I think he saw rubes like Kevin out there and recognized a grand opportunity.  He's tapped into the anger, hate and fear that was already out there and is now playing the role of their dear leader. Like fascist leaders of the past, Trump has made it OK for people like Greg Gianforte to beat up reporters. Supporters of Gianforte think that the reporter had it coming to him. Why? He asked a question that Gianforte didn't like. This is what an authoritarian regime looks like. Trump and his followers have made this possible.

So, when Kevin talks about enablers, brainwashing, and propaganda that ends in authoritarian control he should look no further than the mirror. He is the one who is willingly being played like a fiddle by people who want to take away the very freedom he claims to cherish. He is being led down the garden path by folks who are taking advantage of his completely irrational hatred of liberals in order to cement their power. Another great irony here is that it's these very liberals...people like me...who are going to save Kevin and other Trumpsters from what they are unwittingly creating. Let me be one of the first to say this.

You're welcome.

FBI used dossier allegations to bolster Trump-Russia investigation

The FBI used the infamous MI-6 dossier as justification for a whole host of investigations, including the most recent one into Carter Page, a senior Trump campaign official. Much as the president would like the Russian stuff to go away, it won't. There is simply too much evidence out there that demands an investigation.

It's incredibly obvious to the thinking world where this is headed. Let's hope this happens sooner rather than later.

Another Buh Bye!

Devin Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has stepped aside as chairman citing evil liberals as the cause. The actual cause was his own unethical and possibly illegal behavior in handling the investigation into ties between Russian intelligence. Worse, he appeared to be Trump Flunky #89, regurgitating information about the investigation from the White House itself.

Flynn, Bannon, Nunes...the arc of the universe is long but it bends towards justice...

The 38%

President Trump's approval rating continues to fall as he struggles to explain his connections to the Russian government, the Russian mafia and Russian oligarchs. He has likely settled down to his core base of around 38 percent of voters who will believe anything he says and NOTHING that anyone who is remotely against the president says.

Trump himself isn't really the problem. It's this 38%. We know from various studies over the last 15 years or so that the demographics that are the Trump voter aren't rational and allow emotion to drive their reasoning process. If Trump is impeached and driven from office on the basis of facts, this reality will be ignored and a new one will be formed in which liberals conspired with the elites and the media to destroy their savior. How on earth do we get these folks to recognize how warped this is?

Perhaps we can't. It may just be that we simply have to get more people to vote against this view. More importantly, we have go get more people to run against this view.

More women...more minorities...

Propaganda 101

Former FBI agent Clint Watts called out the president and his followers yesterday in front of the Senate Intelligence committee for actively using Russian measures to undermine the US political system. It's what most of us have known all along and it's shocking, disgusting, likely treasonous and just plain fucking stupid.

When you send someone to Washington DC to "drain the swamp," you are, in effect, doing the Russians' bidding. They want our system weakened so they can increase their influence in the world. It certainly helps when you have tens of millions of Americans who are so consumed by hatred of liberals that they will believe anything they read.

The blame for this lies directly at the feet of right wing bloggers and their mouth foaming band of commenters. Now that the direct connection has been made (as seen in the testimony below), it's time we stopped listening to these assholes and call them out on their ignorant and destructive behavior.

Waving Buh-Bye To the House Intel Investigation

Now that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes has shown that he is compromised in terms of the investigation he is running regarding ties between Russian intelligence and the Trump campaign, the House investigation is officially dead.

So, it's now the Senate's turn and my hope is that things will be taken a little more seriously in the upper chamber. Honestly, there is no more important story than this one. This is not a legitimate presidency until we find out what's going on in terms of all of these connections. I'm happy to see that both Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner will be testifying before this committee.

Good Words

I have been authorized by the Department of Justice to confirm that the FBI, as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

That includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government, and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts.

---FBI Director James Comey, testifying today before the House Intelligence Committee.

The question now is how long Trump will be in office.

Wikileaks (Russia) Outs the CIA

Wikileaks has released a treasure trove of documents that detail CIA hacking operations. These documents essentially state that our intelligence agencies can hack any phone or computer whenever they want. Is anyone out there shocked?

What's really not shocking is the timing of the release. Wikileaks is essentially Russian intelligence and this act is clearly a message for those intelligence gathering agencies within our government: don't fuck with our guy. That guy being Trump.

The Russian thing is really sinking in now for the president and he's not making matters any better for himself by continuing to insist that Barack Obama has been hacking his offices. Loving the chaos in our government, the Russians have now thrown this monkey into the wrench to make things even worse.

I feel like I'm reading a spy novel in the 1980s...sheesh...

Tied Up Phone Lines

Sessions Under Fire

Another day, another Trump administration official under fire for his links with Russia. Attorney General Jeff Sessions had two contacts with the Russian Ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, last fall.

What was the subject of these conversations? Sessions has issued several contradictory statements. He testified in his confirmation hearing he had no contact with the Russians. Now, he's saying he had contact but it was in a Senatorial capacity. Several Republican leaders have called for Sessions to recuse himself from the ongoing investigations into Trump's Russian ties. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has called for Sessions to resign.

I think he should definitely recuse himself. Resign? Eh, not yet anyway. I'd rather have him hold out as long as possible so if he is really guilty of lying and the Russian connections, he'll get taken down while AG.

That would leave a mark!

Totalitarians All Along

For years, conservatives warned of liberal totalitarianism. It turns out it was really them all along that want a state similar to the Soviet Union.

By using the phrase and placing himself in such infamous company, at least in his choice of vocabulary to attack his critics, Mr. Trump has demonstrated, Ms. Khrushcheva said, that the language of “autocracy, of state nationalism is always the same regardless of the country, and no nation is exempt.” She added that, in all likelihood, Mr. Trump had not read Lenin, Stalin or Mao Zedong, but the “formulas of insult, humiliation, domination, branding, enemy-forming and name calling are always the same.”

Shocking...not...

I've said this for years. Whenever conservatives bitch liberals being ____________, it's invariably them that are being ____________.

Three Separate Probes

Reuters has a piece up regarding the THREE separate probes that the FBI is currently conducting regarding the connections between Russia and the Trump Administration. Before I highlight each one, I find it highly amusing and outright LMAO that the same people who were chanting "lock her up" last year are now excusing everything that has to do with Trump and Russia. They call it everything from fake news to an Obama shadow government operation running by the Ladies Optimists Club of Hibbing, Minnesota. The cognitive dissonance runs deep with these folks...

The three probes are:

-The FBI's Pittsburgh field office, which runs many cyber security investigations, is trying to identify the people behind breaches of the Democratic National Committee's computer systems, the officials said. Those breaches, in 2015 and the first half of 2016, exposed the internal communications of party officials as the Democratic nominating convention got underway and helped undermine support for Hillary Clinton.

- The bureau’s San Francisco office is trying to identify the people who called themselves “Guccifer 2” and posted emails stolen from Clinton campaign manager John Podesta’s account, the sources said. Those emails contained details about fundraising by the Clinton Foundation and other topics.

-Beyond the two FBI field offices, FBI counterintelligence agents based in Washington are pursuing leads from informants and foreign communications intercepts, two of the people said. This counterintelligence inquiry includes but is not limited to examination of financial transactions by Russian individuals and companies who are believed to have links to Trump associates. The transactions under scrutiny involve investments by Russians in overseas entities that appear to have been undertaken through middlemen and front companies, two people briefed on the probe said.

Based on this information, as well as other reports of secret deals regarding Ukraine and the Flynn resignation, it's only a matter of time before Trump is toast. GOP leaders in Congress will begin to weigh how expendable Trump is compared to what they could accomplish with a President Pence. Let's recognize that Pence is a fairly stable conservative who would work much more easily with Republicans in both the House and the Senate.

The only thing really holding them back at this point is the voters. They know that around 40% of this country love and blindly follow Trump...for now. If that number dips below 35 percent, I suspect we will start hearing impeachment talk.

A New Level of Moronic

CNN has a nice summary up of what we know regarding Donald Trump, his advisers, and Russia. It's good information to have but there are few things that have been left out.

Perhaps the most important item is the fact that the president has now declared war on the intelligence community. It makes sense after this tantrum that we now know they are keeping sensitive information from him. Further, Trump's open disdain is likely going to cost him in a big way. Check this out.

John Schindler 

✔@20committee

US intelligence is not the problem here.

The President's collusion with Russian intelligence is.

Many details, but the essence is simple.

8:21 AM - 15 Feb 2017

 
•  3,3673,367 Retweets
 
•  5,6845,684 likes

 Follow

John Schindler 

✔@20committee

Now we go nuclear. IC war going to new levels. Just got an EM fm senior IC friend, it began: "He will die in jail."https://twitter.com/JWal077/status/831871381570781184 …

8:27 AM - 15 Feb 2017

 
•  5,5805,580 Retweets
 
•  7,0787,078 likes

John Schindler is a former NSA intelligence analyst. I've always thought that Donald Trump was idiotic but this is far worse than I could have possibly imagined. Pissing off the people who likely have compromising information on you is a new level of moronic.

Worse, these are the people that protect us on a daily basis from extremist attacks. The alt right (aka Russian intelligence useful idiots) is now accusing them of being some sort of Obama shadow government perfectly illustrating the epic fail of responsibility and ownership of their actions. They are in charge and they are STILL blaming Barack Obama!

Wow....

How Long?

With members of both parties in Congress calling for a deeper investigation into Trump administration ties to Russian intelligence, we've now moved into a place where it's easier to imagine the president not lasting very long.

High-level advisers close to then-presidential nominee Donald Trump were in constant communication during the campaign with Russians known to US intelligence, multiple current and former intelligence, law enforcement and administration officials tell CNN. Michael Flynn, the recently fired National Security Adviser who barely lasted three weeks, shared information with the Russian Ambassador to the United States and the White House knew about this three weeks ago.

How much more synergy is there between Russia and Trump and his administration? Based on the president's past comments and actions (see here, here and here), it's obvious that he is beholden to Russia in a detrimental way. The Flynn revelations make it necessary for there to be a more complete and intensive investigation.

So, how long is Trump going to last as president? He's barely started and this investigation is going to severely impede his ability to get anything done. That and the fact that his staff of right wing bloggers and commenters are so incredibly incompetent and allergic to reality that they can't seem to function as a team and get anything done.

I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't make it to the end of the year...

Supporting Our New Presdient

As I listened to the testimony of Donald Trump's nominees for his cabinet this week, it struck me how opposite they are in terms of policy from the man that is hiring them. Trump tweeted that he likes people that disagree with him and challenge his ideas. Well, Mr. Future President, that's going to be me as well.

There are many liberals out there who are hiding their heads in the sand and pretending this isn't going to be real. Others have started support groups and the like on social media. Hey, whatever folks need. Me? I don't need any of that because, while I think the next four years are going to be a disaster, we still have to figure out a way to work together and here's the main reason why.

Russia has carried out the best propaganda campaign and psi-op in the history of the world. They have installed a man who they have dirt on in the White House. Donald Trump is going to start off, anyway, as their pawn. The Russians have also successfully used conservatives, especially right wing bloggers and commenters, as conduits in their propaganda campaign. They knew full well that these folks hated liberals more than anything and would easily allow their irrational feelings consume them to the point of voting for a man who is immensely unqualified to be president on a myriad of levels.

Yet, the Russians also knew that our country would be pissed about this. They knew that if they were successful, we'd be split and angry at each other. Considering they are already going to erode our power in the world with what they have done so far, why help them anymore?

I'm not saying we have to support everything that Trump does. Nor am I saying we can't be critical. What I am saying is that we can't give up and hide. We have to hold him and the GOP in Congress accountable. There are still many good people on both sides of the aisle that are going to fight hard for our country's place in the world. Let's help them do it!

The Russians are counting on us being fractured. Let's dispel that shit right now. One of the best things about this county is that we evolve out of our disagreements and thrive on our antagonism towards one another. Let's use that positively by, say, getting more people to the ballot box in 2017 as well as 2018. Pissed of at Trump? Go vote. And then get your representatives on a local, state and federal level to offer something better.

All indications are that Trump's presidency may not even last the whole four years. The investigations into Russian hacking and connections to the Trump campaign will continue. If he is booted out, Mike Pence would at least be a more qualified and experienced leader. Pence definitely has a better temperament and I say this disagreeing with him ideologically in just about every way. Until that time, however, we have to figure out a way to be more united. We have to figure out ways to help out our future president.

The Russians may have won this round but we can't let them win the next.

Whiny Little Bitch