As Russia’s virtual war against the United States continues unabated with the midterm elections approaching, the State Department has yet to spend any of the $120 million it has been allocated since late 2016 to counter foreign efforts to meddle in elections or sow distrust in democracy.
As a result, not one of the 23 analysts working in the department’s Global Engagement Center — which has been tasked with countering Moscow’s disinformation campaign — speaks Russian, and a department hiring freeze has hindered efforts to recruit the computer experts needed to track the Russian efforts.
The delay is just one symptom of the largely passive response to the Russian interference by President Trump, who has made little if any public effort to rally the nation to confront Moscow and defend democratic institutions.
As if you needed ANY more evidence that Donald Trump is a Russian agent.
This also reinforces the New Yorker article about the Kremlin's influence in Trump's decision to choose Rex Tillerson as his Secretary of State.
Just not sure that Mitt Romney would have been so willing to play along with this.
OIL!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.rawstory.com/2018/03/trump-offshore-oil-plan-threatens-millions-jobs-report/
DeleteClinton 2016
ReplyDelete(she actually won)
So what are they spending the money on instead? Redecorating their office,like the rest of the swamp dwellers in trump's admin.
ReplyDeleteSpending all that money for trumps golfing.
DeleteAny half-decent politician acting as Secretary of State would NEVER refuse to spend 120 million to ensure our elections aren’t being messed with. I’m not a Romney fan, but I believe he would have attempted to protect our elections. Hell, even Dick Cheney would want to ensure Russia wasn’t screwing with us!
ReplyDeleteBut the former CEO of ExxonMobil? Now that’s a man for sale! Sickening.
Vlad already gave Tillerson a friendship medal for services rendered or some such shit. We knew this before Trump anointed him. But Ryan and McConnell rubber stamped him anyway.
DeleteBefore Donald Trump the United States president had to keep his ill opinions to himself.
ReplyDeleteNow it seems, every day, we are being inundated with senseless things from the empty space in Donald's skull.
He even said that America will try dictatorship one of these days and no one blinked.
He has used foul language and teased people like an eight year old in a school playground and no one in blinked.
Donald as so soiled the duties of an American President and how they are supposed to behave in a leadership situation that whoever comes after him and burp and scratch his balls during the state of the union address and they'd never add up to what Donald did to the presidency.
What boggles the mind is how the so called evangelicals have given this guy a "mulligan" and how the GOP have looked away.
I know something stinks to the high heavens but I can't put my finger on it. Is it because Americans have always been one step away from being the hooligans that once ran Europe? They haven't gotten that out of their system and now on a rampage?
I mean the founding fathers had the best ideas yet they have seemed to sour in this modern age when money, corruption, and lack of respect seem to flourish.
It's almost as if the Italian mafia values became the winning culture in this land of many cultures.
You’re right, Donald Trump has taken the Presidency to new lows. The damage won’t stop with him. Unless he is strongly punished for what he has done, those who come after Trump will take advantage of the lower standard.
DeleteTrump needs to be stopped immediately and/or impeached. He is a proven detriment to our society and country.
ReplyDeleteUnited States Congress do your job and start the impeachment process. I think the majority of you are going down in the next election cycle due to your blind trust and adoration of your dictator leader, Trump.
A lot of Americans are enjoying larger paychecks, less useless government oversight (ei largess of federal 'welfare' jobs), and not being talked down to by a (previous) President who never held any real job in his life. And they are absolutely joyous that the ultra bitch Hillary was finally put in her place. Trump will serve two terms.
Delete1:16. Why do you use blanket statements. Alot of Americans. In one year, I don't think Donald has impacted the country at all except for bringing out the fascist in everyone. And whatever this year's presidency seems to have done is basically reap what the previous president sowed in his term to make America an equal playing ground for everyone. The hunger games president has just gotten started and in year three to four we shall be pretty down hill.
Delete1:16PM, I find it quite telling that you think that a black man speaking like an adult is "being talked down to" and your best criticism for a woman is "ultra bitch".
DeleteTo Anon 1:16- I am an American working in my state government as an accountant for an agency that is mostly funded by the federal government.
DeleteWe got our raises cut nearly 50%, our budget cut by 900,000 dollars, which is a substantial amount. All of these decisions came from the federal & state government. Because of the fear of layoffs, our excellent and kind Administrator chose to not replace our CFO, so we had less on the payroll. Our Admin instead chose to split the CFO’s duties amongst himself and three higher ups and all took no extra pay. We’re understaffed and not filling positions. All of this crap has happened in the last year. From July 2017, things have slowly gone to shit.
But you know the most terrible thing? We had a lovely 30-something lady from India here LEGALLY who was in IT and had been for 5 years. She did a great job and was one of those highly educated immigrants Trump keeps talking about. She doesn’t work there anymore because the government has stopped sponsoring certain work visas for employees. Again, not a decision from out agency’s leaders, and nothing we could do. She had to leave because she cannot be here legally unless her employer sponsors her visa.
Luckily, he had a job lined up before she left last week in the private sector and her employer would sponsor the visa. I’m glad that she was easily hired outside the government, but she should have never been forced out in the first place.
In my workplace and around the state, government employees are NOT happy at all. And there are 18,000+ of us in my state of Iowa, which was recently ranked as the overall number 1 State to live in here in the US. I was shocked at that, because I’m certainly not seeing it.
O/T -Trump rolls back consumer protection, to the delight of Wall Street. His poor rural voters just luv, luv, luv, their president. Idiots.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/a-year-of-rolling-back-consumer-protections/2018/03/05/e11713ca-0d05-11e8-95a5-c396801049ef_story.html
I am not surprised. Why stop that money laundering business now? I mean a century of progress was celebrated last year. Now they are all "hangry" (hungry + angry)
ReplyDeletethat the money train stopped. :/
Man I hate it when that happens.
OT?
ReplyDeletehttps://crooksandliars.com/2018/03/sen-thad-cochran-resigns-and-mississippi
"McDaniel is already going for the other Senate seat held by Sen. Roger Wicker. So McDaniel has to decide if knocking off an incumbent is easier than knocking off an interim appointee. If the rest goes according to the script, then amply be-chinned Bitch McConnell loses another seat."
https://www.thedailybeast.com/exiled-russian-billionaire-khodorkovsky-on-the-real-mcmafia-vladimir-putin-and-political-murders
ReplyDeleteFB"(Excerpt from the WHAT UNITES US essay "What is Patriotism?")
ReplyDelete"Today we are a divided country. Too many decent and law-abiding men and especially women are being told that this nation is not for them, that their values make us weaker, that their voice is better left unspoken. We see elected officials pounding their chests, saying their vision of America represents the only real patriotism. To them I say that patriotism is not a cudgel. It is not an arms race. It also means confronting honestly what is wrong or sinful with our nation and government. I see my love of country imbued with a responsibility to bear witness to its faults.
Our nation was built on a foundation of ideals. To be sure, we are a country of natural wonder — a cross-continental expanse of fertile farmland, churning rivers, great resources, and some of the most beautiful places on Earth. But more than land, we are bound together by a grand experiment in government, the rule of law, and common bonds of citizenship. This is what it means to be an American. It’s tragic that those with the strongest ancestral tie to the land, the Native Americans, have so bitterly felt the chasm between the soaring words of our Declaration of Independence and Constitution and the harsh reality of governmental policy...
I have long been suspicious of those who would vociferously and publicly bestow the title of “patriot” upon themselves with an air of superiority. And I have generally taken a skeptical view of those who are quick to pass judgment on the depths of patriotism in others. George Washington, in his famous Farewell Address, warned future generations “to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.” I like to think of this as an admonition, not only to be wary of the patriotic posturing of others, but also to be alert to the stirrings of pretended patriotism within oneself.
It is important not to confuse “patriotism” with “nationalism.” As I define it, nationalism is a monologue in which you place your country in a position of moral and cultural supremacy over others. Patriotism, while deeply personal, is a dialogue with your fellow citizens, and a larger world, about not only what you love about your country but also how it can be improved. Unchecked nationalism leads to conflict and war. Unbridled patriotism can lead to the betterment of society. Patriotism is rooted in humility. Nationalism is rooted in arrogance...
Our nation will not survive as we know it without an engaged and committed population. We cannot wait for others to fix what is broken, and I am inspired to see a new generation of grassroots activists rise up to insist that the cause of justice is expressed broadly across America. Our founding documents contain some of the most beautiful and noble words ever put on paper. I recite them often and love them with every fiber of my being. “We the people,” all of us, are living together in perhaps the greatest social and governmental experiment ever conceived. We are being tested. How can we prepare ourselves for this moment? Are we up to the challenge?"" Dan the man Rather
Donaldovitch Trumpovitch does not want to stop the russian interference that elected him in 2016. He knows which way his bread is buttered. I'm only surprised he hasn't yet removed the existing sanctions on Russia and allowed Putin to take over Ukraine to curry favor with his idol and puppet master, Putin, in the hope of more financial favors and help for his re-election.
ReplyDeleteIt should be obvious to everyone that he has been groomed and sweetened for years by the Russians with flattery, loans and business deals that could well turn out to be money laundering schemes. In spite of his shady past, childish behavior and scandal-ridden presidency, a staggering number of Americans choose to look the other way because 40.5% of the population still supports him according to today's 538 website.
It's hard to comprehend how such a rich and powerful country could be so easily manipulated.
Doesn't mean much. Even Gerald Ford's approvals were better than Trump's.
DeleteCohn OUT!
ReplyDelete"rump’s chief economic adviser Gary Cohn has resigned Tuesday after unsuccessfully lobbying the president not to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum.
The New York Times reported Cohn’s resignation.""
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-problem-isnt-just-trump-its-our-ignorant-electorate?via=desktop&source=Reddit
ReplyDelete"waiting for whatever outrage will inevitably belch forth from the White House—once a bastion of seriousness and decorum, now ground zero for the demise of western democracy. How many lies will Trump spew today? "
"rump is a symptom not the disease. Without us, he would amount to nothing more than what he had always been before the bizzaro presidential election of 2016: a foppish narcissist desperate for any measure of affirmation; a joke; a nothing. He did not create his voters. They have been there all along, seething with sometimes justifiable anger and suffering their various insecurities. They created and enabled Trump. And make no mistake, in all their vulnerable humanity, they are us: Gullible, compliant, distracted, marinating in irony."
"It is a mistake to regard concern about such ignorance as effete snobbery or elitist condescension. While misapprehensions about basic astronomy, earth science and biology may have little impact on these folk’s daily lives, does anyone actually believe that similarly uninformed views aren’t likely to affect their grasp of policies regarding, say, climate change? Income inequality? Gun violence? Immigration?"
"It is a mistake to regard concern about such ignorance as effete snobbery or elitist condescension. While misapprehensions about basic astronomy, earth science and biology may have little impact on these folk’s daily lives, does anyone actually believe that similarly uninformed views aren’t likely to affect their grasp of policies regarding, say, climate change? Income inequality? Gun violence? Immigration?
" As Upton Sinclair famously put it, “It’s hard to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding it.”
"NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers’ recent testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee should mark a turning point, though he merely confirmed what has been apparent for some time: that even as our nation is under attack from a Russia determined to subvert our democracy, the president has not directed any relevant agencies to defend the country. This is a violation of the oath Trump swore on inauguration day and smacks of treason. We have entered uncharted waters."
Ron Reagan