Financial analysts stated the failures of president Trump in his first 100 days confirm the real power lies with the members of U.S. Congress. Stocks keep pushing to higher levels.
Russia’s interference and effect on the U.S. election? Today still conjecture, just politics in DC and no hard evidence …
[A number of links added are mine – Oui]
Putin Didn’t Undermine the Election–We Did | The Nation – Nov. 29, 2016 |
Three weeks after Election Day, allegations of Russian interference in the contest continue to appear. Adm. Michael S. Rogers, director of the National Security Agency, stated that there was a “conscious effort by a nation-state to achieve a specific end.”
The Washington Post features an article alleging that independent research reveals that Russia ran a “sophisticated propaganda campaign” to interfere in our elections, weaken Clinton, and discredit our democracy. But much of the research cited comes from a group that insists on remaining anonymous and bases its conclusions on murky methodology.
Clearly, somebody hacked into the Democratic National Committee computers and into Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s e-mail. The intelligence agencies state that the former was done by hackers supported by or promoted by Russia. The agencies have been less clear about the source of the latter. Clinton campaign spokespeople have suggested that the Podesta e-mails–and the election-eve machinations of FBI Director James B. Comey, who no one argues is a Russian stooge–contributed to Donald Trump’s victory.
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What were Russian President Vladimir Putin’s purposes in meddling with the U.S. election, if in fact he did so? (Putin dismisses the charge as “hysteria,” and cybersecurity experts argue there is no hard evidence.)The Economist argues that “the Kremlin’s main objectives are to discredit the institutions of democratic elections and free press, and to weaken both candidates as much as possible.” It sought to make the election “look messy,” the Economist argues, and to “damage the brand.”
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The hysteria being drummed up around Putin’s alleged intervention in the U.S. elections isn’t accidental. Neoconservatives and liberal interventionists have been pumping for a new cold war with Russia. Now, with Trump suggesting that he might seek a new detente with Russia, cooperate to attack the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and cool tensions over Ukraine, hyping Putin’s alleged intervention in our elections makes any cooperation more difficult.In this situation, the press has to be careful that its reporting doesn’t peddle fear and neo-McCarthyite slurs rather than fact. For example, The Post’s front-page article touted “independent researchers” making the sensational claim that Russian propaganda efforts in the election “were viewed more than 213 million times” on Facebook alone. But the primary source of the report was the anonymous executive director of PropOrNot, which apparently started up just this summer and refuses to release the names of its leaders or the sources of its funds.
Andrew Cockburn, Washington editor for Harper’s, was sharply critical of The Washington Post‘s decision to put the story on its front page, calling the article a “sorry piece of trash”.[1] Writers in The Intercept, Fortune, and Rolling Stone criticized The Washington Post for including a report by an organization with no reputation for fact-checking in an article on “fake news”.
In The New Yorker, Adrian Chen said that he had been previously contacted by the organization, but had chosen not to follow up with them. Looking more carefully into their methodology, he argued that PropOrNot’s criteria for establishing propaganda were so broad that they could have included “not only Russian state-controlled media organizations, such as Russia Today, but nearly every news outlet in the world, including the Post itself” on their list.
In December 2016, The Washington Post appended an “Editor’s Note” to its article in response to the criticism of PropOrNot’s list of websites.[10] The note read, “The Post, which did not name any of the sites, does not itself vouch for the validity of PropOrNot’s findings regarding any individual media outlet, nor did the article purport to do so.”
○ Germany alarmed about potential Russian interference in election: spy chief | Reuters – Nov. 16, 2016 |
○ German Intelligence Agencies Find No Evidence of Russian Interference | Newsweek – Feb. 7, 2017 |
○ US intelligence chief: Russia interfering in French, German elections | Politico.eu – 10 hours ago |
○ NATO and Soros Crossed Russia’s Red Line in Europe
○ Soros-Funded University Pledges to Fight Hungarian Crackdown
Based on the narrative arc of this sort of thing with peak frenzy being the turning point for some rationality beginning to set in, we’re currently only at the thirty to sixty days in stage of the Iraq War. Maybe a few began to have doubts as WMD didn’t surface, most supporters were confident that they would be found and that their location was known. Every once in a while, there was an “aha we found them,” that filled their confidence for a few days. Then there were the big news items — getting (killing) Uday and Qusay and finally nabbing the “evil one” as well. That one provided news fodder for three years — incarceration, trial, and execution.
At some point, they pulled out the “Saddam squirreled away the WMD in Syria.” (Good PR priming for the intended later regime change there.) By the two year mark, everybody, except those that had opposed the war AND scoffed at the WMD claims, forgot all about them. A “no use crying over spilled milk” defense mechanism.
The most widespread and fastest to reach peak frenzy that I recall was the Gulf War. That bubble also deflated quickly as people struggled to recall what it had all been about in the first place. Slowest was the Vietnam War.
Chronologically — nine and a half months in from the first disclosure — we’re where the Watergate investigation was in March 1973, but in that instance the solid evidence has been increasing. It’s still claims, allegations, assertions without any new evidence presented since last summer and that evidence was weaker than that for the WMD.
Let’s be generous and give them another sixty days to put up or shut up.
I was rather disturbed at the targeting of Hussein’s family. True, they were government/military officials but it seemed the emphasis was on their descent from Saddam Hussein. It had all the earmarks of a royal dynastic war.
Barbaric, but not uncommon in the violent overthrow of a “king.” (Four of Gaddafis sons were killed during his overthrow and one was arrested and later hanged.)
Deposed royals aren’t inclined to accept their new status and tend to lurk in the fringes waiting to be restored. Whatever would the US/UK have done after ousting Mossedegh if they hadn’t had the Shah to reinstall? (heh, in 2001-02 the USG considered reinstalling the old king of Afghanistan who iirc declined the honor.) To this day, the Shah’s kid carries the Crown Prince of Iran title. (The Iranian revolutionaries let the Shah’s family go — except for one nephew who was assassinated in Paris. Guess they aren’t as bloodthirsty as Yanks.)
No, except for the religious fanatics. On the whole, I’ve found all the Iranians that I have met (admittedly, all in the USA) to be rather pro-American.
Only the religious hate America. Not so true about Arabs who dislike America for not being anti-Semitic. Not anti-Israel. That goes without saying. But when they complain to me, it’s always about “Jews”, not “Israelis”.
Certain countries seem worse than others. I had an English boss who worked for a while in the middle east for British Aerospace. He told me that when you walked across the border from Saudi Arabia into Bahrain, you could sense the difference. Like you were emerging from a Medieval dungeon.
Who do you classify as Arab? I’ve known three Iranians (although they preferred to identify as Persians). None approved of the takeover of their country by Muslim fundamentalists. Not surprising as one was a Jew, one a Baha’i, and one either a Christian or lapsed Muslim. Can’t recall any comments wrt to Israel of Jews from my Abu Dhabi friend when he was in this country. (In America, he lived like Americans — drinking beer, watching basketball, and having dinner with a woman.)
If not for religious fanaticism, would Iranians have been able to oust the Shah for a second time? The first time, without religious fanaticism, was easily and rather quickly reversed.
Self-identified as Arab. And, yes, the Iranians called themselves Persians and one introduced us to Persian food. He was a vegetarian and I tried the Persian vegetarian dishes with him (the only one of our work group who did). Pretty good, but I preferred the lamb on a skewer along with the hot strong tea in heavy thick glass mugs. I called it Russian style but that got me a very dirty look from the waiter. Sort of like Greeks and Turks arguing over who owns baklava.
Eldest son Muhammad Gaddafi fled to Algeria and later was granted asylum in Oman.
Safia Gaddafi, the dictator’s widow and three of his children left a hideaway in Algeria, more than a year after they crossed the border from Libya. Mohammad Abdulaziz, Libya’s foreign minister, said that the group had accepted political asylum from Oman and conceded it was difficult to foresee their return to Libya, where several face criminal charges.
Sultan Qaboos, Oman’s ruler, is a Sandhurst-educated Anglophile who last week hosted a three-day visit by the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall and he is close to several members of the Government.
The Gaddafi group includes the former leader’s daughter Aisha, a lawyer who made headlines around the world with her campaigns on behalf of Saddam Hussein. The most notorious member of the group is Gaddafi’s son Hannibal. He is wanted for alleged human rights abuses by the new authorities in Tripoli.
○ The violent deaths of Gaddafi and his son Mo’tassim after being captured alive (2011)
○ Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam sentenced to death by court in Libya | The Guardian – July 2015 |
○ Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam at large in Libya after being released from death row | The Telegraph – July 2016 |
Dutch princess Mable Wisse Smith in rescue attempt by Dutch military Lynx helicopter after being stranded in Libya upon a visit with Saif Gaddafi (March 3, 2011)
○ Could Muammar Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam Solve the Libya Crisis? | Feb. 2017 |
Latest WikiLeaks release shows how the CIA uses computer code to hide the origins of its hacking attacks and ‘disguise them as Russian or Chinese activity’
Of course…