Trumpet Calls Against Media and Intel

[KeithE]

[Jim]

I’ve been watching McCain’s Intel hearing this morning involving the top honchos connected to the DNI.  McCain considers the Russian hacking (assuming it took place) as an act of war, never mind that such an act could be answered with military means, not just counter-cyber activity.  DNI Director Clapper made it clear that he considers it (if it took place) as an act of espionage and mentioned that it’s dangerous to throw rocks if one lives in a glass house, i.e., that the U.S does the same thing regarding hacking into anything it can worldwide.  The point was made, apparently more or less consensually, that any hacking had nothing to do with the election.  The hacking that took place, whether from Russia or anywhere else, affected the DNC in exposing its corruption, which, of course, had to do with stacking the deck against Bernie Sanders in favor of guaranteeing that Hillary would crack the glass ceiling. Just the possibility of that happening is chilling if not scary.  Clapper, a former general, also indicated that it would be well for the U.S. and Russia to find “mutual interests,” another way of saying he agrees with Trump in establishing a friendship with Russia, not a strictly adversarial arrangement, which has been the Obama/Clinton position to the extent of Hillary meddling in the Russian election involving Putin’s presidency.  This is not to say that governments must not meddle in the elections in other countries when their own interests are involved.  This world is not Camelot and all governments do not play by the same rules, meaning that taking the the low road (if it can be defined, but try water-boarding) is always a possibility.
 
McCain’s position is hypocritical, of course, in that he, along with Senators Graham and Lieberman, fomented the unprovoked U.S. unilateral attack (NATO not a significant factor) against Libya, totally unauthorized either legally or Constitutionally.  It was a monstrous war-crime that cost thousands of lives over a seven-month period.  McCain and Graham also tried to get Obama to attack Syria, which he almost did, though he provided weaponry against both of those sovereign nations, meddling in civil wars.  Putin saved his bacon when he took over the affairs of the Middle East, essentially telling Obama to bug out, which he has, and wisely so.  So, when McCain complains about the actual espionage as an act of war, he condemns himself and his position by his own actions. I'm not a Fox-addict and so do not watch Hannity or Kelly but listen to O'Reilly's rant at the beginning of his slot and then leave it, but watched the advertised Hannity interview with Assange in London. Assange insists vehemently that his stuff did not come from Russia and he's easy to believe since the dems like to blame him for Hillery's welcome defeat...or anything else to get the public mind off of her pathetic and DNC-crooked candidacy. Besides being a genius of sorts, Assange is also creepy. Trump can't be blamed for harassing the intel outfits—though I don't agree with him—since none of them has yet said categorically that Russia hacked anything, even the DNC. The entire subject is actually moot since there will never be completely safe encryption. Some entity will always come on scene to neutralize the immediately preceding entity in the cyber-wars. Just check the Chinese activity—or simple credit-card theft/manipulation—to get the picture. If one wants absolute safety/secrecy/privacy, he needs to ignore the computer, wi fi and every other electronic potential torturer.

The greatest danger today is North Korea. The low road might be an option, assassination of the little assassin (of his own people) a move toward peace.
 

[William Thornton]

When someone tosses out "fake news" and "alt right" they are meaningless phrases. Let's see specifics.

[Sandy]

https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate ... tive-right
http://www.adl.org/combating-hate/domes ... t-the.html
http://www.npr.org/2016/08/26/491452721 ... -alt-right
https://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman ... .vvApylgdK
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the ... 7ffacd00e0

A few specifics.

[William Thornton]

Ryan said the GBC used or linked fake news and alt right sites. No specifics on that?

[KeithE]

[KeithE]

[Jim]

The mainstream media (dem propaganda machine) is all agog over Trump’ tweeting about everything, especially the intel systems. He tweets, of course, because he discovered during the campaign that social media was the only way he could counteract the MM effort to destroy him. However, the hearing yesterday was small potatoes (or no potatoes) when compared to the seven days of hearings by the Church Committee in the 1970s (Sen. Church, dem from Idaho) into the entire intel system of the country, including the FBI and especially the CIA, not least because of the assassinations (or unsuccessful attempts) of Congo’s Lumumba, Castro, the Diem brothers in Vietnam, Trujillo in Dominican Republic, and Chile’s Gen. Schneider. Could one say these were democrat-inspired? In any case, some folks took the view that Church emasculated the CIA while others disagreed. For instance, covert operations were still allowed and it’s worth noting that the first American death in Afghanistan was not that of a soldier but a CIA operative, posthumously awarded a medal equal to the military silver star. There are times when citizens must trust the intel people, even when actively engaged in what some consider inappropriate endeavors, such as in Afghanistan or, potentially, the death of Baghdadi in ISIS. I would just as soon not know what the CIA is doing. The FBI is another matter since it, at least ostensibly, operates in the confines of the U.S. Any agency can be used by a president or other bureaucrat for skullduggery—IRS (Obama) against Tea Party or FBI (Hoover) vis-à-vis MLK, for instance—so it’s a sort of crap-shoot with the hope that reason will prevail. Sometimes, if not most of the time, it does.

[KeithE]

[Jim]

[Dave Roberts]

It's funny to me that we Christians don't take the creation accounts in Genesis seriously. We may say we believe the Bible, but forget our commission "to tend and keep" the created world. Shouldn't we be the first to be cautious about earth care, and should we not also be the last to rape the natural world? I think the patron saint for the religious right when it comes to creation is James Watt.

[Sandy]

[Dave Roberts]