Day: December 13, 2016

Closing Thought–13Dec16

The Russian Hack!

Okay by now you have heard about the Russian hack that is pouring out of the news these days….that is unless you have been in a coma or trapped in a public bathroom in Peoria…….

The news is that no less than 17 US intel agencies have conformed that it was the Russians that hacked into the DNC and started aiding the Trump camp (at least that is the scenario)….

Now everyone has an opinion on this attack…the Trump people, especially the Prez does not believe that it was the Russians…..

It’s time for everyone – especially President-Elect Trump – to get the facts right about Russian interference in the election. The conversation started months ago, when leading voices in the intelligence community began voicing concern that Russian government hackers were behind cyber-attacks at the DNC and other U.S. political organizations. In October, the U.S. government officially accused Russia of hacking and interfering in the U.S. election. And it gets worse: just this weekend, a new CIA report concluded that Russia acted with the specific intention of swinging the election to President Elect Donald Trump.
Russia’s interference with the U.S.’s presidential election is an attack on our sovereignty, our security, and the integrity of our democracy. But our president-elect doesn’t seem bothered. Over the weekend, Trump denied the CIA’s assessment, called the findings of the report “ridiculous”, and even refused to acknowledge the established fact that Russia was behind the hackings in the first place.

The fallout from Friday night’s “bombshell” report from the CIA that Russian hackers directly interfered with the US election in order to get Donald Trump elected continued Saturday. Here are seven things you need to know:

  • With Trump criticizing the CIA—rather than Russia—in the wake of the report, the New York Times reports he’s opening an “extraordinary breach” between himself and the national security establishment he’s bound to need during his presidency.
  • While mostly at a loss, Michael Tomasky at the Daily Beast has a few pieces of advice for what Democrats should do next: “Demand the release of the information. Demand a real investigation…The media needs to get the message that conservatives aren’t the only people who get pissed off.”
  • In a “no-win situation for the GOP,” some Republicans in Congress want to investigate Russia’s involvement in the election against Trump’s wishes. The Washington Post has four ways they could take on Russia, with or without the president-elect.
  • Harry Reid is calling for the resignation of FBI director James Comey, who he compares to J. Edgar Hoover and accuses of covering up information about Russia’s activities to get Trump elected, the Guardian reports.
  • Pamela Kruger at Fortune points out that Trump did Saturday what he normally does when faced with a major negative story: spend the morning tweeting about something completely unrelated; Celebrity Apprentice, in this case.
  • Worried Trump will ignore Russian threats to US democracy when he takes office, Quartz reports President Obama is “racing against the clock” to get a full report on Russia’s involvement in US affairs before he steps down in six weeks.

I am having fun with our new president’s reaction……

Donald Trump continued his extraordinary repudiation of U.S. intelligence agencies Wednesday night when he expressed “doubt” about their conclusion that Russia has been interfering in the U.S. election through a hacking campaign — even though intelligence officials briefed him on the Russia link in person months ago.

“Our country has no idea,” who is doing the hacking, the Republican nominee said during the final presidential debate, after Hillary Clinton challenged him to accept the conclusion of the CIA and other agencies that the Russian government was behind the leaks of internal Democratic emails.

When moderator Chris Wallace pressed Trump on whether he was disputing the assessment from U.S. intelligence officials, he replied, “Yeah, I doubt it. I doubt it.”

(NBC News)

“I don’t think anybody knows it was Russia that broke into the DNC,” Trump said. “I mean, it could be Russia, but it could also be China. It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, okay?”

But my fave thing that Mr. Trump said was…..”if we do not detect them while the hack is going on then we have NO way of telling who started it”…..

Apparently our new president has NO idea how cyber-security works…that should be comforting to all Americans.
I am still concerned that the American people just 10 years ago would have NEVER allowed a president to basically embrace Russia and yet these days NO one seems to care…..

The Press: Trump’s Antagonist

By now even the dullest of the few will know what our new president thinks of the media…..and we know that he will attack without mercy via Twitter….

But how will the press actually handle the presidency of Donald Trump?

When George W. Bush was president, Rick Perlstein writes that he used to fantasize about posing this thought experiment to the mainstream media: If you were reporters in Germany when the Nazi party was rising, he would ask, at what point would you break from the pretense of “‘objectivity’—gotta hear both sides!—to inform your audience that what was going on was not normal?” During the Bush administration, the point felt a little overstated, but “no longer,” writes Perlstein in a post at In These Times. He views Donald Trump’s victory as nothing less than a trauma, and he writes that our nation is historically bad at dealing with traumas. Instead of confronting them, we resort to kumbaya-style choruses of “let’s come together.” And the media is worst of all, writes Perlstein, whose piece is headlined “The Rush to Normalize Trump.”

Perlstein cites a prior visit to the Oklahoma City bombing museum to make his point. Displays stress heroism in the immediate aftermath but fail to mention the years of anti-government vitriol that preceded the attack and turned Americans into terrorists. He thinks something similar is happening in the wake of Trump’s victory, with the theme now all about glossing over the ugliness of his campaign messages and reaching consensus. Things are bound to get worse, he warns. When Trump fails to fulfill promises or ushers in “geostrategic chaos,” Perlstein predicts he will deftly deflect blame onto his rotating list of enemies. “Enduring and resisting this onslaught will be traumatic,” writes Perlstein. “We will need unflinching assessments of exactly what it is we are going through.” But he’s not optimistic we’ll get it. Click for the full column.

Will be like the press coverage of the arrival of Napolean….he was a beast when miles from Paris as he drew closer he became a mad man, then a angry soldier and by the time he entered Paris the press was calling him a savior of France….will our MSM morph in the same way?

Will the press be a “king” maker?

In our communal effort to now try to figure out what kind of president Donald Trump will be (an endeavor which has traditionally, until this year, been undertaken BEFORE a presidential election has been completed), it seems there has been a lot of misdirected focus. It appears that, especially on the left, most of the concern is that he will turn into a racist dictator of some sort.

However, the left, as they so often do, is not only overplaying their hand with regard to who Donald Trump is, but they are also missing the primary point almost entirely. While I understand how someone who bought into the left’s “alt-right” “white supremacist” caricature of Trump might see his authoritarian “law and order” language as real warning signs of the rise of a Hitler-like figure (did you know that they were both named Time’s “Person of the Year”?), I think this conclusion requires a fundamental misunderstanding of who Trump is.

Source: Trump is Becoming a King and the News Media is Playing Along | Mediaite

Time has began the “make nice” campaign…..how many others will follow suit?

Where’s The Iraqi News?

AS the battles rage across Iraq….the military and militias are attempting to put an end to ISIS in Iraq…..the conflict has had many set backs in recent years….but with the help of US and its allies the conflict is swinging in the direction of the Iraqis.

I usually get some first hand news out of Iraq for I still have a few friends that I made when I worked in the country in the 1980’s and they, when possible, keep me informed and I then try to pass on to my readers the news that seems to escape the MSM of the West.

Recently, for about a  month, my friends have been slow to get me any news….at first I thought it was because they might be in danger and were laying low to avoid any complications.

Over last weekend I finally got to hear from one of my friends and he said that ALL news about the conflict was being censored in many ways….especially on bloggers and people not associated with the government….

He then sent me a piece written up in a region news source……

The Iraqi government is keeping an eye on local and foreign media outlets that are covering security events in the country, especially the war against the Islamic State (IS), namely in the battle to liberate the city of Mosul.

On Dec. 3, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) rectified its previous report on the violence against civilians in Iraq, following the criticism of the report by the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, which requested it to be amended. UNAMI admitted that the number of casualties mentioned in the report was incorrect and was not collected from reliable sources.

This was not the first time that media outlets or humanitarian organizations corrected their reports following requests by Iraqi authorities. Since the launch of the Mosul operation, the Iraqi government is keeping an eye on media outlets and humanitarian organizations covering the battle of Mosul to prevent them from publishing false reports.

Appears the Iraqis have learned a lesson well from their American friends….that on how to control the info on the battles as they rage….

Central Asia–A New Frontier

Recently I was contracted to do an in-depth report for this local business man that was about to sign a deal to do business in the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan…..since that report was completed I have been watching the region for anything that this business person might need….

Source: Where The Hell Is Kyrgyzstan? – In Saner Thought

I found a couple of reports on the region that could prove valuable to this person….

On 11 December, Kyrgyzstan will held its sixth constitutional referendum since the country gained independence in 1991. The proposed constitutional amendments – which are likely to be endorsed in the popular vote – are set to roll back the country’s parliamentary system in favour of a strengthened executive.

If passed, the amendments will strengthen the powers of the president and prime minister, impinge on the independence of the judiciary, and curtail human rights and fundamental freedoms. The referendum follows a widely quoted interview with President Almazbek Atambayev in spring 2016, in which he mentioned the need for constitutional reforms in order to strengthen Kyrgyzstan’s sovereignty and national security.

Source: Kyrgyzstan: President Atambayev’s Constitutional Gamble | European Council on Foreign Relations

This report needed to be read by anyone interested in doing business in the country….

Continuing my research on the region I found another report that also needs to be read……

Uzbekistan’s 4 December presidential election formally confirmed Shavkat Mirziyoyev in the office he assumed in an acting capacity on 8 September, within days of the death of Islam Karimov. After 25 years of Karimov’s authoritarian rule, however, one of Central Asia’s most repressive states faces challenges that can only be effectively addressed by genuine domestic and foreign policy departures. Mirziyoyev has received positive notices for a few small moves in the past three months, but there is no sign as yet that he intends to alter fundamentally the system he helped shape as prime minister since 2003, a system designed to protect those in power at the expense of the population’s rights. His steps to repair relations regionally have been met with mistrust by Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, while the tough issues, such as sharing of resources, have yet to be broached. There has been even less indication of new directions internally, where the new president shares power with at least two other prominent members of the Karimov era.

Source: Uzbekistan: Reform or Repeat? | Crisis Group

I told this person that knowing one country is not enough….one must be knowledgeable of the whole region because everything there is interdependent…….so to know Kyrgyzstan one must know all the countries and situations…like Tajikistan….

Tajikistan may be a small country in Central Asia, but it was once hailed by the United Nations as one of the few international success stories of peace and reconciliation.

Yet the events of this year alone have turned Tajikistan into a model, not for success, but for the failure of the international community in sustaining the democratic achievements of a nation that lost 100,000 lives to end a five-year civil war between 1992 and 1997.

The Tajik president, Emomali Rahmon, has moved to make himself president for life, ban and imprison all opposition and silence the media – and the world has remained silent.

Source: Tajikistan: The success story that failed – Al Jazeera English

Once I contacted the man he authorized me to put together another report, a follow-up, because he was about to start moving his assets around for a business venture….

My check is in the mail!

Damn!  I love my gig!

“America First”

Sorry but it is time for another history lesson…..(moans and groans all around)……..

One of the slogans employed by PEOTUS Trump…the other was “Make America Great Again”…..as a history nut I kept thinking that “America First” had been used before…I looked back to Reagan….close but no cigar.  There were many candidates that used some form of the idea/term….so I kept looking and reading.

My regulars know that I will sneak a historic perspective in my posts whenever I can….some shudder, others smile and even others appreciate my diligence.

Then when I was watching the History Channel and its new shows about Pearl Harbor I heard the magic words….”America First”!

Guess what?  It was an antiwar group that wanted to keep the US out of another war……

The America First Committee (AFC) was organized in September 1940 to oppose America`s potential intervention in World War II. Hitler`s invasion of Poland had precipitated war in September 1939. A year later, the only major military force resisting the Nazis was Britain. The smaller nations had been quickly overrun, France had capitulated, and the Soviet Union was using its nonagression pact with Germany to pursue its own interests in Finland and elsewhere. At the time, a majority of Americans felt that while the world would be a better place if Britain prevailed over Germany, they were not inclined to declare war and repeat the earlier experience of American soldiers fighting on European soil.

This reluctance had inspired Congress to pass neutrality acts in the late 1930`s which restricted the American government`s ability to support either party in the conflict, which in practice meant the Allies since the Axis powers were widely regarded with distaste. Roosevelt, who had been corresponding with Churchill for years before Churchill was even part of the Tory government, clearly identified American interests with the hope for British victory. Using tactics like the “bases for destroyers” deal, he attempted to maximize his support for the British while skirting if not actually violating the principle of neutrality.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor the attempt to avoid another war was pretty much dead in the water (NO pun intended)……

Your history lesson is done…..now you know something you did not know yesterday….that is call education.