Rex Tillerson

Puerto Rico Etc: The Buck Lingers Here Long Enough for Trump to Find Someone Else to Blame

Posted by on September 13, 2018 at 1:19 pm. 4 Comments :

Hurricane Florence is bearing down on the Carolinas with the anticipation of substantial damage and injury. Everyone on the ground is working furiously to mitigate the worst scenarios, but even the most cautious predictions are troubling. And while the residents of the impacted region are scrambling to secure their homes and families, Donald Trump is scrambling salve his fragile ego.

Donald Trump

On Thursday morning, as the winds were beginning to batter the eastern coastline, Trump felt it was necessary to bang out a couple of tweets that were characteristically all about him:

Our intellectually-challenged president is incapable of grasping the fact that any fatality that was the result of injuries or hardships caused by Hurricane Maria are attributed to it. And the estimated 3,000 deaths were calculated by independent researchers at George Washington University. The Democrats had nothing to do with it. Trump didn’t even bother to explain how Democrats could have produced casualty estimates that were accepted by the Republican governor of Puerto Rico.

However, Trump is well known for his cowardice and pathological aversion to taking responsibility. Puerto Rico is just the latest example. But the incidents of this psychosis are numerous and easy to find. For instance:

  • Trump blamed his own policy of separating immigrant children from their parents on Democrats.
  • Trump blamed collusion with Russia on Hillary Clinton.
  • Trump Blamed his loss of the popular vote on imaginary voter fraud.
  • Trump blamed President Obama’s “illegitimate” presidency on his Kenyan birth.
  • Trump blamed China for starting the “hoax” of climate change.
  • Trump blamed the fatalities from mass shootings on mental illness and gangs.
  • Trump blamed his failure of constructing a border wall on Democratic obstruction.
  • Trump blamed the “pussy-grabbing” Access Hollywood tape on “tampering.”
  • Trump blamed his confession of obstructing justice on NBC’s Lester Holt “fudging” the tape.
  • Trump blamed crime and terrorism in the U.S. on Muslims who entered the country illegally.
  • Trump blamed the nation’s economic problems on foreign tariffs.

Every one of those diversions are unambiguously false. And for virtually everything else that Trump wants to avoid responsibility for, he blames what he calls the “fake news.” Clearly he is fixated on identifying anyone or anything other than himself for what are his own failures. Just like he did when he was a businessman. It’s another symptom of his malignant narcissism that results in casting blame onto whatever handy victim he can stir up.

Conversely, he takes credit for any positive events that take place during his time in office. The economy has been rising for ten years, beginning back in Obama’s first term. But Trump is not only taking credit for all of it, he’s lying about the economy collapsing when he was inaugurated (it wasn’t). He has also taken credit for being tougher on Russia than any other president (he’s not). He takes credit for saving the coal industry (he didn’t). He actually says that construction has begun on his border wall (it hasn’t). And he even tried to credit himself with rescuing the children who he ripped from the arms of their sobbing parents.

This is the behavior of a severely disturbed person. It is someone who fits the description provided by his closest associates in his administration. Like his former Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, who called Trump a “moron.” And his Defense Secretary, James Mattis who said Trump has “the understanding of a fifth or sixth-grader.” And his White House chief of staff, John Kelly, who called Trump an “idiot.” And his former National Security Adviser, H.R. McMaster, who said Trump was a “dope” with the intelligence of a “kindergartner.”

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Yet, somehow, most of the Republicans in Congress (and the electorate) continue to defend and enable this dangerously psychotic pretender to leadership. It’s an abdication of their duty and patriotism. And it makes them complicit in the harm that Trump is doing to America and its future. Their slobbering infatuation with, and obedience to, the wannabe dictator Trump is as destructive as anything Trump does himself. And the sooner he’s gone, whether by election, impeachment, prosecution, or resignation, the better.

Fox News Thanks God that WH Aides are Preventing Crazytown Trump From Really Screwing Up

Posted by on September 4, 2018 at 5:18 pm. 2 Comments :

If you weren’t afraid before, get ready to be scared out of your wits. Excerpts are being released from Bob Woodward’s new book, Fear: Trump in the White House, by Bob Woodward, that confirm some of the worst horror stories to emerge from the presidency of Donald Trump. The book’s title could not be more appropriate.

Donald Trump Zombie

Among the revelations that Woodward is reporting are some that have been disclosed previously. For instance, Trump’s chief of staff, John Kelly, has a less than flattering opinion of Trump’s intellectual capacity. He is reported to have called him an “idiot” who it is pointless to talk to. And he describes the White House as “Crazytown.” That would put Kelly in agreement with Trump’s former secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, who called Trump a “moron.” Not surprisingly, Trump is already refuting the credibility of the book’s assertions. But credibility is not the hallmark of Trump’s tenure in the White House. The Washington Post has his documented lies in office up to 4,700+ so far. That’s an average of fifteen per day.

However, Fox News was discussing a part of the book that described the way some of Trump’s aides deal with his “off the rails” outbursts and inclinations that pose imminent danger to the nation. And the comments by Fox’s senior analyst, Brit Hume, tell a terrifying tale of Trump going “right up to edge” of potential oblivion (video below):

“What you see here, in at least the excerpts we’ve seen from the book, is this volcanic president who [inaudible] about himself in the most demeaning ways to the people around him. Walks right up to edge of what would be incredibly disastrous decisions all the time. Prepared to do this, that, and the other thing. Restrained apparently, ultimately, by aides around him much of the time. There’s an account in there of a document he’s about to sign and they came in and took it off his desk.

“So what does that say to the people in the ‘Never Trump’ movement, particularly on the right, who don’t think the people who are serving in the Trump administration should do so because it participates in this fiasco of a presidency? It seems to me the lesson that comes away from this is: Thank God for the people around Trump who are keeping him on the straight and narrow to the extent they can. That’s a service to the country, it seems to me, without question.”

This description of life in Trump’s White House couldn’t be more disturbing. Hume paints him as a “volcanic” figure who is “demeaning” to his staff. He seems perpetually on the verge of making “disastrous decisions” in his “fiasco” of a presidency. Presumably that exempts the decisions that he has actually gotten away with so far. And the only thing that has prevented these calamities is that his staff has literally stolen documents off his desk to keep him from doing more harm.

If that’s not bad enough, Hume seems to think that the presence of unelected aides who are willing to deceive and manipulate the commander-in-chief is a good thing. Oh yeah. It is so comforting to know that our president is a flaming mental case with the capacity to destroy the nation – or the world – but for some hangers-on who throw the wool over his eyes. Isn’t that exactly what all Americans want from their national leadership? Trump, in this scenario, is Fox News’ idea of the realization of the American Dream. Hallelujah!

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Fox News Excuses Tillerson Mess, White House Chaos By Saying that ‘Disarray is Trumpism’

Posted by on March 13, 2018 at 2:46 pm. 4 Comments :

The Tuesday Morning Massacre at Donald Trump’s White House rocked the political media. In the matter of a few hours Trump had fired the Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Steve Goldstein, the State Dept spokesman whose announcement of Tillerson’s firing contradicted the White House story, and Trump’s personal assistant, John McEntee, whose dismissal was due to an investigation for “serious financial crimes“ (He was then immediately hired by Trump’s 2020 campaign).

trump-departures

However, over on Fox News the presidential pandemonium was given a much more positive spin. It didn’t represent the turmoil that everyone else was seeing. It was merely, as Fox political editor Chris Stirewalt said, “Trump being Trump.” In an interview (video below) with anchor Sandra Smith, Stirewalt dutifully pardoned the President for any malfeasance in office or mismanagement.

Smith: “Does this add to the speculation of disarray inside the West Wing? Or should one just decide that this is the way the President works?”
Stirewalt: “Well, both things could be true. Disarray may be the methodology. If disarray is a methodology, then perhaps that is Trumpism. But let’s also remember if we put this in context of what else is going on, we saw Donald Trump govern in 2017 as a very traditional kind of Republican president. In 2018 we’re seeing Trump being Trump. […] And so I think we are seeing here, maybe not disarray, but instead this real pivot back to core nationalist, populist Trumpism.”

See? It’s just Trump executing his plan perfectly. It’s all unfolding exactly the way he wants it to. Nothing out of order, or out of the ordinary. He is just “pivoting” back to his “core nationalist, populist Trumpism,” whatever the hell that is.

If those remarks weren’t ludicrous enough, Stirewalt also had to assert that last year Trump was “very traditional.” In what dystopian nightmare? 2017 was a year filled with lying, hypocrisy, and a policy agenda that was either preposterous or dangerous or both. It was the year that he tried (and failed) to repeal ObamaCare. He rescinded DACA by executive action. He pushed through a tax bill that enriched corporations and his wealthy pals to the detriment of everyone else.

And his personnel management was a historical disaster. There was a forty-plus percent turnover in top presidential posts. And just to put a fine point on Trump’s deranged perspective, he had this to say regarding his recent staff shake-up: “I’m really at a point where I’m close to having the Cabinet, and other things, that I want.” He’s been in office for more than a year and he’s just now getting to that point? God help us all if he ever actually gets there.

But leave it to Fox News to sugar-coat Trump’s incompetence. And it didn’t take them an hour to develop this public relations propaganda spiel. Just think what they’ll be saying by this evening when Sean Hannity goes on the air. By then Trump will be heralded as the most brilliant national leader of the millennium. And sadly, way too many glassy-eyed Fox News disciples and Trump cultists will believe it.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

FAKE NEWS! That’s What Trump Called Media Reports that Tillerson Would Be Fired – Um, OK

Posted by on March 13, 2018 at 9:20 am. 2 Comments :

Another one bites the dust: On Tuesday morning it was announced that Donald Trump had fired his Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson. This move came after months of awkward conflicts between the President and his top diplomat. It was not an unexpected development, but most White House watchers probably thought it would come later, after the firing of H.R. McMaster, John Kelly, or Jeff Sessions.

Donald Trump Vladimir Putin

For the record, Trump has previously denied all reports that he was even considering terminating Tillerson. In fact, he called it “fake news.” That was just three months ago:

Apparently they work so well together that he had to go. Maybe Stormy – I mean Melania – was getting jealous. So this was tweeted on Tuesday:

This is rather startling timing for such a major personnel change. Trump recently announced that he would be meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un by May. Now the United States will be breaking in a new Secretary of State and still has no ambassador to South Korea. There are also significant issues pending with Iran, Israel, China, Russia, and the U.K. But not to worry. As Trump said in November regarding his dangerously understaffed State Department “I’m the only one that matters.”

Rest assured that whatever you hear from the administration about Tillerson’s departure will be a lie. It is no coincidence that he was jettisoned the day after he forcefully charged that Russia was responsible for the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in England. Trump was not about to allow any criticism of his BFF, Vladimir Putin. When given the opportunity on Monday to hold Russia accountable, the White House balked, leaving our U.K. allies in the lurch.

Let this be a lesson to anyone serving this president. If you say anything unkind about Putin, you’re out of a job. It’s almost worse than saying something unkind about Trump himself. Actually, it is worse. Tillerson called Trump a moron last year and didn’t get fired. Putin is apparently the third rail in the Trump White House.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Moron Trump Turns Out to Be a Chicken, Backs Out of IQ Challenge With Sec. Tillerson

Posted by on October 10, 2017 at 2:33 pm. NO Comments :

Late last week NBC News revealed that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had openly disparaged Donald Trump as a “f*cking moron.” The surprisingly accurate analysis came during a meeting at the Pentagon in July according to three sources. Tillerson later held an unprecedented press conference to refute the charge that his boss is frighteningly dumb. However, he forgot the actual refutation and never denied that he made the statement.

Donald Trump Chicken

It’s notable that there was almost no one defending Trump’s alleged intelligence following Tillerson’s honest appraisal. However, Trump himself finally addressed it in an interview with Forbes Magazine, saying:

“I think it’s fake news, but if he did that, I guess we’ll have to compare IQ tests. And I can tell you who is going to win.”

This would not exactly be an epic contest of wits. Trump has demonstrated repeatedly that he is woefully deprived in the smarts department. He has the vocabulary of a third grader and cannot seem to retain or comprehend simple facts. An IQ test would resolve this controversy in the “reality show” manner that Trump is accustomed to. And it would give Tillerson an opportunity to prove that Trump’s insult to his intelligence was fake news. Never mind that Trump has previously demeaned Tillerson by stating that his diplomatic efforts were a “waste of time.”

Unfortunately, the big competition has already been called off. Trump’s press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, was asked about the event at the White House press briefing. She advised that the President just “made a joke, nothing more than that.” He never intended to take on Tillerson. Which is a shame because the Mensa Institute had offered to sponsor the event.

Had this match gone on it would have been another fiasco for Trump. He has recently been squabbling with the Republican chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Corker. Corker expressed concern that Trump’s White House was on the verge of chaos. Trump replied with a flurry of furious tweets. But Corker had the last word when he tweeted back saying:

Corker elaborated in a statement to the New York Times. He said that Trump’s behavior “concerned” him and that he feared the President was putting the nation “on the path to World War III.” He also made note of Trump’s tendency to lie, saying “I don’t know why the president tweets out things that are not true.” And he implied that he was not alone in harboring these concerns. “I know for a fact,” Corker said, “that every single day at the White House, it’s a situation of trying to contain him.”

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

These comments should worry every American. If a conservative Republican is this nervous about a president from his own party, there is likely a fire raging under that smoke. It’s time for Corker and his GOP colleagues to stop complaining about the imminent danger Trump represents and do something about it. They don’t have to wait for special counsel Robert Mueller’s report to begin impeachment hearings.

Donald Trump Wants ‘Equal Time’ on TV – And the Unintended Reason That’s a Fantastic Idea

Posted by on October 7, 2017 at 2:23 pm. 3 Comments :

It wouldn’t be Saturday morning without Donald Trump posting a flurry of frantic Tweets. True to form, his latest Twitter tantrum unleashed a stream of nonsense with more tedious swipes at the media. As usual he’s upset that there are reports that he considers negative. He’s right. But it isn’t the fault of the media that he screws up so much.

Donald Trump

This week the news about Trump included his troubles with White House staff, and particularly Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. NBC had multiple inside sources that heard Tillerson call Trump a “moron.” Trump further embarrassed himself by insulting victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. And he recklessly implied hostile intentions to both North Korea and Iran. If there was positive news about him last week it would have been reported. Followed by inane suggestions that he was finally pivoting to become presidential. So absent any of the good news Trump craves, he tweeted this:

Poor Donald. He simply cannot abide the sort of mockery that every president has endured since the founding of the nation. While he virulently insults his foes as “crooked, crazy, sick,” etc., he whines about being the butt of jokes.

As for the substance of his tweets, is Trump asking for an equal amount of “unfunny and repetitive” material? Because that can certainly be arranged by his comedy surrogates, if not by himself. Secondly, are there really “more and more people” who want to see more of Trump on TV? And are they currently under a doctor’s supervision? Finally, did he end his second tweet with a question mark because even he isn’t sure WTF he means?

More to the point, it’s his remedy for this perceived offense that is most worrisome. He actually believes that the media give him less time than his liberal and Democratic opponents. Hence his proposal to invoke the Equal Time rules to restore balance. However, the evidence shows that Trump has received far more airtime than any other public figure. This was true during the election when he received nearly three times the coverage of any of his opponents. After his inauguration he continued to dominate the press, as reported in a study by the Shorenstein Center of Harvard University:

“President Trump dominated media coverage in the outlets and programs analyzed, with Trump being the topic of 41 percent of all news stories—three times the amount of coverage received by previous presidents. He was also the featured speaker in nearly two-thirds of his coverage.”

The real world data clearly contradicts Trump’s self-serving bitchfest. But it’s also notable that he is, once again, demonstrating that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The Equal Time Rule was intended prevent television stations from influencing the outcome of elections by favoring one candidate over another. It has nothing to do with airtime distribution when an election is not in progress. He may be thinking of the Fairness Doctrine, but the sainted Republican Ronald Reagan did away with that thirty years ago.

As is often the case, the motivation for these tweets by Trump was likely a segment on Fox News shortly before he tweeted. And speaking of Fox News, they would have an interesting dilemma if Trump got his way with regard to Equal Time. Fox News has distinguished itself as the PR division of the Trump administration. They are the closest thing to state-run television that America has ever known. If they were required to provide Equal Time to Democrats it would mean that half of their schedule would be taken over by the party they are devoted to destroying.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

So let’s let Trump have his way. Let’s actually have an accounting of the network airtime distribution and require networks to balance their coverage. In all likelihood, that would result in Democrats getting significantly more coverage on Fox News, and even some marginally more coverage on every other network. It would be a welcome change in the broadcast environment that either favors Trump or the ratings-friendly melodrama he generates. So bring it on, Donnie.

Donald Trump Kneecaps His Own Secretary of State While Hinting at War with North Korea

Posted by on October 1, 2017 at 12:03 pm. NO Comments :

If you thought Donald Trump couldn’t get worse, you don’t know Trump. On Sunday morning he unleashed another flurry of insane and dangerous tweets. They included the obligatory and tedious attacks on the media. And he also fired off new insults aimed at the suffering people of Puerto Rico and their brave mayor. Of course he couldn’t refrain form exalting himself and the greatness he thinks he’s achieving.

Donald Trump Rex Tillerson

However, the worst utterances in his latest Twitter tantrum were directed at his own Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson. Trump has often shown no hesitation to belittle and undermine people on his White House staff. He seems to have no consciousness of the damage it does to the nation’s reputation and credibility. And with that carelessness and bile he posted these troubling tweets:

Tillerson has recently made public comments alluding to negotiations with North Korea. While in China this weekend he told reporters that “We have a couple, three channels open to Pyongyang. We can talk to them, we do talk to them.” He added that “I think everyone would like for it to calm down.” Well, apparently not everyone. In fact, just this August Trump tweeted that “Talking is not the answer.”

Now Trump is virtually sabotaging the efforts of Tillerson and the State Department to peacefully denuclearize North Korea. And it isn’t merely a public disagreement with a particular policy. Trump called Tillerson’s diplomacy a waste of time. It’s an attitude of hostility toward negotiations that is emblematic of his presidency. Where is the dealmaker he pretends to be? His “art of the deal” is nothing more than trash talk and bullying.

Trump followed up that bluster with another infantile insult to Kim Jong Un as “Little Rocket Man.” Seriously, did Trump ever get past the third grade? How exactly does he think that advances the goals of the United States, and the world, to achieve nuclear disarmament? To the contrary, he has given Kim justification for worrying about a U.S. attack. He is validating Kim’s motivation to build up a nuclear arsenal. And Trump’s cryptic comment about doing “what has to be done” will only exacerbate the problem. Especially after threatening to “totally destroy” North Korea in his speech to the United Nations last month.

Donald Trump is proving that he is not only unfit to hold this office, but that he is an imminent danger to the world. His reckless rhetoric and ignorance of international affairs would be bad enough. But his inability to even maintain coherent unity within his own government suggests something far worse than mere incompetence. It paints a picture of a deranged man grappling with forces he can’t possibly understand.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

You have to wonder where his staff is while he’s ranting uncontrollably. Can his Chief of Staff, John Kelly, be comfortable with this behavior? And where is the Republican Party and its leaders in Congress? Are they all willing to see this devolve into an unnecessary war of atomic proportions? The media also has a role in shining a light of rationality on this before it turns into catastrophe. Finally, special counsel Robert Mueller may be the one figure left to save us all from Trump’s Apocalypse. An anxious America is waiting on you, Mr. Mueller.

THIS JUST IN: Another tweet:

Nobody is being nice to him you moron. Negotiations that threaten sanctions and international isolation are not invitations to a party. And why won’t you fail? You’ve failed at EVERYTHING else.

Fox News Implies That Donald Trump is Just as Batty as Kim Jong-Un. Who Can Argue With That?

Posted by on August 10, 2017 at 4:35 pm. 3 Comments :

On Wednesday Donald Trump laid the foundation for a nuclear confrontation with North Korea. His brimstone laden “fire and fury” speech has brought new and unnecessary tensions to an already shaky relationship. It was an inevitable escalation of craziness from a narcissistic personality with a thirty-three percent approval rating. And of course, it didn’t take long for the media pundits to weigh in with predictably inane debates.

Donald Trump Kim Jong-Un

On Fox News Thursday morning there was a particularly confounding view offered by anchor Jon Scott. He wanted to know whether there was a “double standard among the press” for their criticism of Trump’s overheated rhetoric. He was puzzled as to why Trump was being criticized but “nobody seems to care all that much about the threats coming from Kim Jong-Un.”

Let’s be clear about this. Scott is making the absurd inference that the media should treat Trump’s statements with equal significance as a certified fruitcake. On the surface, I can’t really find any fault with that. Trump is at least as batty as Kim. However, when looked at as an American president vs. Kim, the distinction ought be huge. Under ordinary circumstances the U.S. should be regarded as far more serious and conscientious than raving madmen.

Unfortunately, these are not ordinary times. Hence the critique of the press by Scott, who thinks Trump should be regarded in the same league as Kim. But Scott’s guest, fellow Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, wasn’t having it:

“Well, look, we kind of expect crazy from Kim Jong-Un. As I said, he’s the head of the ‘Hermit Kingdom. He’s a pariah for almost the entire world. So, we don’t expect him to be judged the same standard as the president. […] I certainly hope we’re not judging Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un by the same standards.”

Wallace’s perspective is surely more coherent than Scott’s. But Scott’s is more prevalent on Fox News and throughout the right-wing mediasphere. Even Trump’s Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, said that Trump was using “language that Kim Jong-Un would understand.” When did lowering our communications skills to the level of babbling nutcases become the goal of American diplomacy?

Wallace deserves some credit for batting down Scott’s absurd allegation of a press double standard. But he still managed to live down to Fox’s low standards for misleading reporting. Woven into his remarks was this completely false observation of the fallout from Trump’s “fire and fury” speech:

“I don’t think anybody objects to the idea that the president was tough and sent a very stern message to the North Koreans.”

Oh really? You would have to be ignoring the letter from sixty members of congress fervently objecting to Trump’s war mongering. And you would also have to have missed the objections from Democratic senate leaders Chuck Schumer and Dianne Feinstein. Not to mention Republican senators John McCain, Dan Sullivan, and Jeff Flake. Trump’s off-the-cuff bluster was widely considered to be inflammatory and counterproductive. And Wallace’s attempt to soft-peddle the backlash only keeps Fox News viewers ill-informed. But then, that’s the mission of Fox News, so Wallace and Scott are just doing their jobs.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Trump’s State Department is Granting Hundreds of Visas for Russian Spies

Posted by on July 7, 2017 at 3:11 pm. 3 Comments :

Friday morning Donald Trump met with Russia’s president Vladimir Putin. This is either their first meeting or their fifteenth, depending on which statement by Trump you choose to believe. In any case, according to the White House, Trump went into the meeting with no agenda. He told reporters that he was honored to meet Putin. That’s a pretty cavalier attitude toward encountering the man who everyone in the U.S. intelligence community says interfered with our election last year.

Donald Trump Vladimir Putin

Trump obviously doesn’t care about the election hacking issue. He still insists that “nobody knows for sure” that the Russians were responsible. That opinion is not only dangerously misguided, it is an insult to America’s national security professionals. It also conveniently lets the guy who helped him get elected off the hook. However, it is not the only threat to which Trump is exposing the nation. CNN is reporting that Russian spies are pouring into the country courtesy of Trump’s State Department:

“Since the November election, US intelligence and law enforcement agencies have detected an increase in suspected Russian intelligence officers entering the US under the guise of other business, according to multiple current and former senior US intelligence officials. The Russians are believed to now have nearly 150 suspected intelligence operatives in the US, these sources said. Officials who spoke to CNN say the Russians are replenishing their ranks after the US in December expelled 35 Russian diplomats suspected of spying in retaliation for election-meddling.”

Those 35 diplomats were expelled by President Obama in response to the Russian hacking. It was just one of the actions taken despite Trump having said that Obama had done nothing. But now that Trump’s team is in place they are readmitting suspicious characters. These are potential operatives who could ramp up election tampering activities for 2018 and 2020. And American intelligence officials are worried about just that:

“Fueling law enforcement officials’ concern is that the Russians are targeting people in the US who can provide access to classified information, in addition to ongoing efforts to hack the US government for intelligence, according to several of the officials. In some cases, Russian spies have tried to gain employment at places with sensitive information as part of their intelligence-gathering efforts, the sources say. But that hasn’t stopped the State Department from issuing the temporary duty visas.”

Reports coming out of Trump’s meeting with Putin indicate that he was less than eager to hold the Russian’s accountable. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that the focus was on moving forward. That must have pleased Putin immensely. I’m sure he’d like to get on with his plans to hack future American elections. And now, thanks to Trump, he’ll have an army of spies in the country to help achieve his goals.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

FFS: Trump Seeks Cyber Security Alliance with Russia, the Country That Hacked Our Election

Posted by on June 20, 2017 at 12:45 pm. 6 Comments :

Just when you thought Donald Trump couldn’t dig himself further up Putin’s anus, he pulls out an even bigger jackhammer. The President appears oblivious to the fact that he is under investigation for colluding with Russia during the 2016 election. Many of his close associates have been caught with Russian agents in meetings they tried to cover up. Seventeen independent American intelligence agencies concluded that Russia engaged in extensive operations to hack our election to Trump’s benefit.

Trump/Putin

Nevertheless, it has now been learned that Trump’s Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, is proposing a confounding alliance. Tillerson had numerous encounters with Russian government and businesses in his previous position as CEO of Exxon. But this new hook up is hard to believe. According to Newsweek, Tillerson is seeking to partner with Russia on projects “aimed at cybersecurity and cyberespionage.” Newsweek notes that this…

“…seems particularly odd given not only the investigations surrounding President Donald Trump and his former campaign but also the conclusion reached by the U.S. intelligence community that Russia intentionally meddled in last year’s election in order to ascend Trump’s candidacy. [and that] Complicating the matter is Trump’s consistent refusal to declare Russia had meddled in the election and reluctance to say anything negative about Putin or his government.”

Set aside for the moment the absurdity of favoring Russia with such a privileged relationship after their activities last year. Any program that joins the United States and Russia in efforts to combat cyber attacks is wrought with obvious peril. The intelligence sharing would give the Russians access to confidential information that could aid them in future attacks on the U.S. They would undoubtedly be pleased to learn what areas the Americans regard as vulnerable. This would include risks far beyond election tampering. Cyber attacks can also be launched against infrastructure, power grids, commerce, and even military operations.

Additionally, this sort of coalition would make American technology available to our new partners. Procedures aimed at investigating digital intrusions would have to be shared. Likewise, methods of correcting and securing systems that have been compromised would become common knowledge. And that knowledge would be invaluable in plotting new attacks.

These ham-handed efforts to engage with a hostile adversary make no sense at all. Even strictly with regard to appearances, it is utterly unjustifiable. Russia, based on its unacknowledged and unremorseful activities, surely doesn’t deserve this special treatment. If anything, they should be subject to further sanctions and explicitly excluded from cooperation on technology matters.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

The fact that Trump’s State Department is openly seeking to reward Russia, despite their bad behavior, suggests something ominous. Could it be a payoff for some past or future benefit for Trump? Does Putin have something on the President that he would release without accommodations like this? Are these questions too conspiratorial? Perhaps they are. But what possible incentive would Trump have for endangering the nation by sharing sensitive technology and cyber security plans with an enemy and international cyber criminal? At the very least, these are questions the media should asking.