Year: 2016

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Donald Trump Featured

Trump on Russia’s Hacking – “It’s a Big Problem” – Video

Of course, Trump was talking about Russia’s hacking being a “big problem” when said hacking was not helping his cause. When said hacking gave him the presidency however, Trump had nothing but good things to say about Russia.

On Fox News in 2014, however, Trump was quick to agree with a similar assessment by FBI director James Comey about hacking by China, and also raised the threat from Russia.

“I think that’s great, I think what he said is fantastic,” Trump said, referring to comments Comey had made on “60 Minutes.”

“I’ve been talking about China for a long time,” Trump continued. “You know, they put on the front like, we’re your friend and everything, and in the meantime the cash comes out of your back pocket. It’s disgraceful what’s going on with China generally.” “No, I think he’s 100% right, it’s a big problem, and we have that problem also with Russia. You saw that over the weekend. Russia’s doing the same thing,” he added.

Video

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Donald Trump Politics

We Are the Majority. Shout It.

I think what’s sustaining me, and alternatively giving me strength, is the knowledge that the United States is not going to become a second-rate nation and that our form of government is not being irrevocably damaged by the Russians, Wikileaks, right wing white nationalists or Donald Trump’s cabinet nominations. No, we cannot let these entities knock us off center or dissuade us from our message as a nation. We alone can lend legitimacy and commitment to democratic republicanism throughout the world, and we alone can fix our internal problems. If anything, the election and its aftermath must make those of us in the majority of voters who rejected the hateful, negative, xenophobic, blame-filled rhetoric of the Trump campaign more committed to the good fight, more convinced that we have history on our side, and more vocal in the coming years to speak truth to power.

OK, we can put our gloved fists down now. On second thought, keep them up.

The right wing ideologues who will run our government come January 20 will certainly do some damage to the environment, to the middle class, to those who need society’s protection from the ravages of a less caring government, and to our commitment to freedom and equality. But it is incumbent upon those of us who see the country’s mission as different to make our wishes known, to take to the streets if necessary and to monitor every move, covert and otherwise, that the new administration makes. And that includes filibusters, lawsuits, social media and nonviolent protests whenever we deem it necessary.

Remember that Donald Trump ran a terrible campaign, has no clue as to how to be a competent president, and that he has nominated people who don’t like government to, well, run the government. There will be some shockingly embarrassing moments in the next year alone, much less the next four, and we need to exploit them at every turn. Do not be hesitant. Do not be silent. Do not do the Democratic, left-wing thing where we say that we don’t want to be strident or uncompromising because that’s what Republicans do. Be difficult. Call out the perpetrators whenever possible. Take charge.

That’s the only way to fight against a group that has no shame when it comes to power grabs, fake news, and outrageously false accusations. We are the majority and we have to act like one.

Have a great holiday season. I’ll be back in 2017.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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Donald Trump Featured

Donald Trump Attacks China with Misspelled Tweet

The Republicans’ choice for president made an unprecedented attack on Twitter today when it was revealed that China captured an unmanned underwater U.S drone in retaliation for some of the dumb things Donald Trump have said.

And right on cue, Donald Trump reminded everyone just how dumb he is when he took to twitter to say the move by China was an “unpresidented act.” The tweet was ultimately removed and replaced, but the damage was already done.

“China steals United States Navy research drone in international waters – rips it out of water and takes it to China in unpresidented act.

Why was this man elected the next leader of the free world is the sickest joke ever played on the American people. You can say his election is truly unpresidented.

 

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alex jones Featured

Aled Jones Deletes Video Telling His Listeners to “Investigate” Pizza-gate – Video

The man who pushed the conspiracy that the Sandy Hook shooting did not happen and that all 20 kindergarten students killed in the attack are still alive, recently pushed another story that caused an armed gunman to enter a pizzeria and began firing off the weapon.

Remember pizza-gate? The Fake news story that claimed Hillary Clinton to be the head of some child sex ring ran out of a pizzeria in D.C, and that she eats the kids? That story, as fake and far-fetched as it is, was deemed true by true by Alex Jones. And he called on his listeners to “investigate” the pizzeria to find the captured kids.

Now I want to be clear. Not everybody in the WikiLeaks is involved in this. Clearly. You have to go investigate it for yourself. But I will warn you, this story that’s been the biggest thing on the internet for several weeks, pizzagate as it’s called, is a rabbit hole that is horrifying to go down.

A gunman took Jones’ words to heart. On December 4, Edgar Maddison Welch went into the D.C pizzeria armed with an assault rifle and began shooting. No one was hurt but Welch later told The New York Times that he got the idea to “investigate” the pizzeria from Alex Jones and his Infowars website.

Jones immediately deleted whatever evidence he had showing him as Welch’s instigator. But the video still exists.

Video

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Politics

Keith Olbermann Warns of a “Bloodless Russian Coup” in America – Video

In another clip from Keith Olbermann via GQ, Keith warns that with the election of Donald Trump, a bloodless Russian Coup has begun in America.

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Barack Obama Politics

Obama on Russia’s Election Hacking – “We need to take actions and we will”

U.S. President Barack Obama gestures as he holds his end of the year news conference at the White House in Washington, December 18, 2015. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

In a radio interview with NPR, the President of the United States, Barack Obama, made it clear that Russia’s involvement in the United States election process will not go without a direct response from the United States.

“I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections, we need to take actions and we will.”

“At a time and a place of our choosing. Some of it my be explicit and publicised, some of it may not be. Mr Putin is well aware of my feelings about this, because I spoke to him directly about it.”

Russia continues to deny any involvement with Donald Trump’s mysterious presidential election win a little over 1 month ago, despite their earlier announcements by high government officials that Russia was in direct contact with the Trump campaign. The CIA maintains that there are strong evidence to prove Russia hacked into the election, and that Putin was personally involved.

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Barack Obama Featured

Poll – Republicans Love for Putin Grows Since Russian Hack Was Revealed

Since the CIA revealed that Russia and Vladimir Putin hacked into our election with the sole purpose of electing Donald Trump, Republicans have found a new love and respect for Russia’s leader.

Putin, who has been accused by the CIA of personally interfering in the US election to help Donald Trump win because he holds a ‘vendetta’ against Hillary Clinton, has seen his popularity rate increase by a staggering 56 percentage points, according to Economist/YouGov poll.

The Russian leader’s net favorability rating jumped from -66 in July 2014 to -10 in the latest survey.

Thirty-two per cent of people who identified as a Republican had a ‘somewhat favorable’ view of Putin, while five per cent said they had a ‘very favorable’ view.

Remarkably, that combined figure means almost three times as many Republicans have a favorable view of Putin as they do of President Barack Obama – who was seen that way by just 17 per cent of all GOP responders.

In contrast, just 12 per cent of Democrats said they had a somewhat of very favorable view of the Russian leader. Across all political divides, 21 per cent of Americans who responded to the survey said they view him favorable.

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Donald Trump

U.S Officials – Putin Personally Involved in U.S Election Hacking – Video

U.S. intelligence officials now believe with “a high level of confidence” that Russian President Vladimir Putin became personally involved in the covert Russian campaign to interfere in the U.S. presidential election, senior U.S. intelligence officials told NBC News.

Two senior officials with direct access to the information say new intelligence shows that Putin personally directed how hacked material from Democrats was leaked and otherwise used. The intelligence came from diplomatic sources and spies working for U.S. allies, the officials said.

Putin’s objectives were multifaceted, a high-level intelligence source told NBC News. What began as a “vendetta” against Hillary Clinton morphed into an effort to show corruption in American politics and to “split off key American allies by creating the image that [other countries] couldn’t depend on the U.S. to be a credible global leader anymore,” the official said.

Video

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Barack Obama Donald Trump

Obama on Trump – He’s “Flying Blind” by Not Accepting Daily Intelligence Briefings – Video

President Obama met with Trevor Noah from The Daily Show and spoke about the recent news that Donald Trump is refusing daily intelligence briefings. According to the president, any president-elect who refuses daily intelligence briefings is “flying blind.”

“I think the president-elect may say one thing and do another once he’s here because the truth of the matter is, it’s a big, complicated world,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how smart you are, you have to have the best information possible to make the best decisions possible … and if you’re not getting [the intel community’s] perspective, their detailed perspective, then you are flying blind.”

Video

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
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Politics

Former CIA Official Calls for New Election – “I don’t see it any other way” – Video

In a CNN interview, former CIA official, Robert Baer made it clear that if America had meddled in a foreign country’s election the way Russia hacked ours, then that country would immediately call for a new vote… and rightly so.

Why shouldn’t we do the same?

“The Russians, it looks like to me did interfere in our elections. We’ll never be able to decide whether they changed the outcome, but I’ll tell you having worked in the CIA if we had been caught interfering in European elections, or Asian elections, or anywhere in the world, those countries would call for new elections. Any democracy would. I mean, I don’t see it any other way. The Electoral College before the nineteenth has got to know whether the Russians had an effect, Whether they went to Wikileaks, whether they hacked email, and whether they affected American opinion.”

“When a foreign country interferes in your election and the outcome is in doubt and the legitimacy of the government. I don’t know how it works constitutionally. I’m not a lawyer, constitutional lawyer, but I’m deeply disturbed by the fact that the Russians interfered, and I would like to see the evidence, because if the evidence is there, I don’t see any other way than to vote again.”

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Featured

John Bolton – If Russia Hacked Us, “Why did they leave fingerprints?”

John Bolton, the man leading the way for Trump’s next Deputy Secretary of State, is casting doubt on the CIA’s assessment that Russia hacked in the United States election system with the sole purpose of electing Donald Trump. It should be noted that Russia has already admitted to being in touch with the Trump campaign during the election.

In an interview Sunday, Bolton told Fox News’ Eric Shawn, “It is not at all clear to me, just viewing this from the outside, that this hacking into the DNC and the RNC computers was not a false flag operation.”

Bolton reasoned that Russia would be too sophisticated to leave evidence of its hacking.  “If you think the Russians did this, why did they leave fingerprints?” he asked.

Though Bolton didn’t elaborate on the term “false flag,” he seemed to be suggesting that someone in the Obama administration or the intelligence agencies could have been attempting to falsely lead the public into believing Russia was to blame for the hacking.

Shawn followed up by asking, “Are you actually accusing someone here in the administration or in the intelligence community of trying to throw something?”

Bolton was not specific: “We just don’t know,” he replied. “But I believe that intelligence has been politicized in the Obama administration to a very significant degree.”

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Donald Trump Donald Trump

The Military-Government Complex

Just in case you thought you’d get an early political holiday present in the form of Donald Trump actually being more moderate than his campaign promises, it’s time to start planning for that wrapped lump of coal to show up via Amazon drone. Which might be good news for the coal miners and executives waiting for a rebound (not going to happen), but is terrible for the majority of the country that voted for a science-based, constitution-respecting, human rights-defending, livable wage-proposing administration that will now be delayed for at least four years, much to the shame and detriment of the United States.

No, what we are seeing is the flowering of an idea that I suspect most Americans have forgotten about after cramming it for their high school history final exam questions and assuming it was nothing they needed to remember. That’s right, folks, I’m talking about good old Dwight Eisenhower’s warning about the emergence and power of the Military-Industrial Complex. And Ike didn’t just warn us about how the complex would corrupt democracy. He also presciently said that we can’t continue to take our natural resources for granted:

Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society’s future, we — you and I, and our government — must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.

Eisenhower is a terrific role model for us today because he was a military man who understood the danger of too much military influence in what is supposed to be a civilian-run government. He respected that the constitution gave him the power to be commander-in-chief, but that power must be wielded responsibly, pragmatically, and in conjunction with the people. Ike used it well, especially when you consider that the 1950s saw a significant increase in the number and power of nuclear weapons, the Suez Crisis, attempted uprisings in Hungary and Poland, and attacks on our ally Israel.

This is why Trump’s infatuation with the military, and the fact that he’s appointed generals to a significant number of cabinet and government posts, is so disturbing. He is using his power to surround himself with other people who see power differently than civilians with no military experience. And he seems to continue to believe that the military has the answers to many of our policy questions.

As for the industrial part of the equation, nominating a Labor Secretary who’s against a livable minimum wage, an Education Secretary who bashes public schools, a true know-nothing for Housing, an anti-science guy at the EPA, and what looks like the mother of all oil executives as Secretary of State proves pretty conclusively that this is going to be a government-by-testosterone with little to no moderating influences from what’s left of the sensible Republican Party. Trump is going to rule by the Only I Can Fix It credo he ran on, and it looks like he’s going to keep his hands in his business dealings despite all of the evidence that suggests that decision will be his ultimate undoing.

What’s even more disturbing is the news that the president-elect is not electing to attend the daily intelligence briefings that are vital in this time in our history. And if anyone needed more intelligence, it’s Donald Trump. This weekend he is bashing the professionals who are saying that the Russians were far more involved in the election that previously reported and he’s also questioning whether the Russians or “some guy in New Jersey (not me)” is responsible for the hacking.

These are the tidbits that let you know that Trump thinks that nothing is possible because anything is possible. He’s not anti-intellectual, he’s un-intellectual. It’s hubris, and we all know how that ends.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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