US Republican and Democratic senators on Sunday called for a special bipartisan panel to investigate cyber attacks against the United States by foreign countries with a focus on Russia's alleged efforts to influence the US presidential election.
Charles Schumer, who will be the Senate Democratic leader in the new US Congress in January, and John McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said separately on Sunday that a select committee was needed to ensure effective congressional focus on the hacking of Democratic Party emails during the campaign.
"The fact that they're hacking our political system and trying to influence the outcome, as it seems to be, that is serious, serious stuff," Schumer of New York told a news conference in New York. He said the panel should also examine hacking by other countries including China and Iran.
Two other senators, Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Democrat Jack Reed of Rhode Island, joined Schumer and McCain of Arizona in sending a letter to Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell requesting the panel, Schumer said.
I think we can call this good news.
I mean I have my doubts that the Republicans will not try to hijack this and use it to attack Hillary again, but if done right they might find proof that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian hackers in an attempt to hijack the election.
I am not sure what that would mean for the Trump administration moving forward, but I for one would really like to see proof if that happened, as the Clinton campaign manager clearly believes that it did.
What an optimist you are to think that Trump would not find it easy to suppress anything icky that should come up in this investigation. I read that there has been a video of Trump saying disgusting things circulating in Hollywood for months and no one will make it public -- out of fear. Yes, Trump has us by the balls now, and soon our hearts and minds will follow, or that is the usual plan. Just like with all the former truth-tellers jumping at the chance to be in his administration. This is an evil day.
ReplyDeleteI don't get what the big deal is with the tape and being sued for breaking an agreement. There are very rich people who supposedly are in possession of it. They spend gobs on so much that is wasteful or for fun. Plus, people could pool their money if one of them showed the tape, and the 5 mill, if that really is what it would cost, would be covered. What's more important? the tape ought to be. There should be a real desire to get it out there and seen. These rich people with the tape, if they have it, have good lawyers, too, not just Trump. Plus, the damage it would do to Trump would be killer--if I had millions to spend, I'd pay for that tape in a heartbeat.
DeleteGood points, 6:29. So what is the offer they can't refuse (to keep it quiet)? I say that are afraid of something. Perhaps IRS, perhaps some of Rupert's backfiles on famous people -- how would anyone know. But clearly there is a reason for what I assumed to be pro-Clinton people keeping this recording back. We don't know the reason, but we see the effect: no tape.
DeleteAn offer they can't refuse? Well, it could be putin that has stuff on them from hacking their computers. Or it could be some "business associates" of donald. He has quite a history of doing business with mob run businesses. Maybe someone woke up with a horse head in their bed?
DeleteI saw something earlier today where under pressure from the Trump Organization, the Kuwaitis moved a function to his DC hotel instead of its original venue. Shit is about to get real regarding his pay to play schemes.
ReplyDeleteKuwait cancelled the event
Deletehttp://www.rawstory.com/2016/12/kuwait-cancels-event-because-of-pressure-to-move-to-trump-hotel/
No. They didn't cancel it. They moved it.
Deletehttps://thinkprogress.org/under-political-pressure-kuwait-cancels-major-event-at-four-seasons-switches-to-trumps-d-c-1f204315d513#.cq4bk1x42
"A source tells ThinkProgress that the Kuwaiti embassy, which has regularly held the event at the Four Seasons in Georgetown, abruptly canceled its reservation after members of the Trump Organization pressured the ambassador to hold the event at the hotel owned by the president-elect. The source, who has direct knowledge of the arrangements between the hotels and the embassy, spoke to ThinkProgress on the condition of anonymity because the individual was not authorized to speak publicly. ThinkProgress was also able to review documentary evidence confirming the source’s account."
"The apparent move by the Kuwaiti Embassy appears to be an effort to gain favor with president-elect through his business entanglements, and it appears to show Trump’s company leveraging his position as president-elect to extract payments from a foreign government. The latter, according to top legal experts, would be unconstitutional and could ultimately constitute an impeachable offense."
"Although the president is exempt from some conflict-of-interest laws, the Congressional Research Service recently identified nine federal conflict of interest and ethics provisions that could apply to the president.
One looms large over the apparent hotel deal with the Kuwaitis: The Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which prohibits the president from receiving money from a foreign government or head of state.
According to Democratic and Republican legal experts, such a payment is not only unconstitutional, it’s an impeachable offense."
Let us hope other countries follow the Kuwaiti example. The big orange blowhard is so full of himself, it is disgusting.
Deletewow.
DeleteI talked to a law professor who said we are about to find out if our system of checks and balances really works. This presidency will be a huge test for our country.
ReplyDeletePrediction:
DeleteRepublicans say IOKIYAR!
Since you're asking the Foxes that are guarding the hen house I'm going to say no. There's chickens missing and a Fox has feathers stuck to his snout and you want the other Foxes to investigate?
DeleteI just wanted to say God bless this country and selfless innovators and leaders. My daughter just retired from speech pathology at age 30 to be a stay at home mom and part time yoga teacher (free yoga classes). She and her husband's bills and mortgage are paid solely by Rodan and fields passive income. Her husband's project manager paychecks go directly to their kids colleges funds and their retirement and "fun" accounts. AND Rodan and Fields gives her 4 paid in full vacations a year at 5 star tropical resorts.
ReplyDeleteOne reason I get so annoyed at people who constantly complain is because there are so many opportunities out there it's sick. Be a go getter.
There are veterans sleeping on the streets of Kansas City tonight.
DeleteIt's 3 degrees outside.
There are people who have earned the right to complain. And, thank dog, there are still those that feel obligated to complain on their behalf.
Merry Christmas
Are you a mlm scam spammer?
Delete"Passive income"?
Google returns included
http://onlineearningmentor.com/rodan-and-fields-scam-review-is-it-a-pyramid-scheme
Well isn’t that special!!
DeleteToo bad your grammar is so poor because you could write fiction or ghostwrite a novel.
You are truly an idiot
DeletePyramid schemes always pay the early birds well at first, while there are plenty of newbies at the bottom. The amount the "winners" collect is exactly equal to the amount the 'losers" pay, and lose. If this is the kind of innovator/leader you are pleased with, go study Bernie Madoff -- he kept his pyramid scheme going a really long time. In the end, lots of losers. And some people who nevertheless made a lot of money off them -- off those losers. Not an ethical way to pay your mortgage, not something to be proud of.
DeleteYou're shilling for some crooked ponzi scheme?
DeleteI think you have the wrong blog. Try the pee pond. They're gullible.
Gullible people. Just like the ones who believe that tRump will "Make America Great Again" Right, for HIS family.
DeleteAnonymous5:50 PM
DeleteSPAM
I do not believe that this 'investigation' will get anywhere. They should have done it before the election, and before the Electorate College met today. This 'investigation' will take far too long, and by then, Mr. Putin-a$$-kisser will be in power and will suppress any and all potential detrimental results.
ReplyDeleteHe is already starting it now.
Well, make sure you get the Rosetta Stone version of Russian. Because you will need it very, very soon!
At this point, since the electoral confirmed it, does it matter?
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to watch the Oprah interview of Michelle on CBS but may have to turn it because Oprah will make it all about HER in the end.
Anonymous 7:05 PM wrote: At this point, since the electoral confirmed it, does it matter?
DeleteThe electoral votes will not be officially counted until a joint session of Congress convenes on 6 January.
I'm trying to watch the Oprah interview of Michelle on CBS but may have to turn it because Oprah will make it all about HER in the end.
Who told you that? And why did you believe them? If that's your belief, why did you "turn it" in the first place?
I watched the Oprah interview with Michele Obama tonight, figured it is going to be awhile before we can comprehend what the first lady is saying.
ReplyDeleteThose traitor trump supporters never questioned why Melanomia can’t speak English, after all, they are really big on English only in this country. I am presuming she will be the Russian to English translator for the White House.
I know Michelle was trying to be gracious, but doing everything to support the next president is a stupid idea, especially when he is trying to destroy the USA.
John needs to drop Sarah off in Vietnam for holding!
ReplyDeleteNewt suggest that trump pardon his cabinet members who break the law. and that congress should change the conflict of interest language due to trump and assets. So this should help work it all out. All will be perfectly A ok.
ReplyDeleteAnd they can just change it back when a Democrat wins.
DeleteJust like North Carolina.
Keith Olbermann had an excellent The Resistance on Trump as Traitor. If he had any knowledge that anyone on his campaign was getting information from the Russians, etc. he can be tried for treason.
ReplyDeleteBut of course, traitorous acts, sedition, emoluments, ANYTHING requires the cooperation of Congress. Both the House and the Senate are in the hands of the Republicans. Trump could literally shoot someone on 5th Avenue and they wouldn't do squat. They would defend him and manufacture evidence to show it was a justified kill and take no action.
This has to do with a mindset that those that have studied Germany of the 1930s have seen.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-nazi-propaganda-coordinate_us_58583b6fe4b08debb78a7d5c
"The word Gleichshaltung is often translated from the German as “coordination” and refers to the process of ― politically speaking ― getting in line. It often appears in books about the Nazi era. German Jewish philologist Victor Klemperer and German journalist Joachim Fest wrote about the personal cost of coordinating in their respective memoirs. German author Sebastian Haffner and Americans including journalist William Shirer wrote about the propaganda and politics of coordination.
German-born Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt, in one of her last interviews, explains it best.
“The problem, the personal problem, was not what our enemies did, but what our friends did. Friends ‘coordinated’ or got in line.” And this coordination was not necessarily due to the “pressure of terror,” said Arendt, who escaped Germany in 1933. Intellectuals were particularly vulnerable to this wave of coordination. “The essence of being an intellectual is that one fabricates ideas about everything,” and many intellectuals of her time were “trapped by their own ideas.”
People rejected the uglier aspects of Nazism but gave ground in ways that ultimately made it successful. They conceded premises to faulty arguments. They rejected the “facts” of propaganda, but not the impressions of it. The new paradigm of authoritarianism was so disorienting that they simply could not see it for what it was, let alone confront it."
"“Divided government” became a trick card in Shirer’s 1960 history, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, when Hitler pushed through the Enabling Act and, “In five brief paragraphs,” took the power to legislate, approve treaties, and initiate constitutional amendments away from Parliament. A divided government essentially “committed suicide,” according to Shirer, and bequeathed its power to a dictator.
There were many others, but “dominance” made them difficult to recognize. Joachim Fest writes in his memoir Not I, “At first, the countless violations of the law by our new rulers still caused a degree of disquiet. But among the incomprehensible features of those months, my father later recalled, was the fact that soon life went on as if such state crimes were the most natural thing in the world.” Those months would turn to years. Not the thousand years that Hitler had predicted, but enough to cause millions of deaths.
We should not waste our time or imaginations trying to reconfigure Trumpism to explain why all of the “good people” supported him. It is more important to see it for what it is and resist. Hopefully, they will join us. If not, it will not be necessary to call them names, they will have named themselves. "
fiasco. Mrs. McConnell has been awarded a lucrative position as Labor Sect. for tRump. Probably payback for McConnell not doing more to expose this earlier. Also, the McConnell's just had dinner at a fancy restaurant with the incoming first lady, Ivanka. They are in this together.
ReplyDeleteBut? John and Mitch helped create the swamp and mess today. Have we not learned anything at all? Don't hire traitors to investigate traitors is the word.
ReplyDelete