The Trump team would like to do a federal takeover of our cell phones to "protect" us against the Chinese. Uh, no.

Oh I'll keep your phones safe alright, you can trust me.

Courtesy of Axios:  

Trump national security officials are considering an unprecedented federal takeover of a portion of the nation’s mobile network to guard against China, according to sensitive documents obtained by Axios. 

Why it matters: We’ve got our hands on a PowerPoint deck and a memo — both produced by a senior National Security Council official — which were presented recently to senior officials at other agencies in the Trump administration. 

The main points: The documents say America needs a centralized nationwide 5G network within three years. There'll be a fierce debate inside the Trump administration — and an outcry from the industry — over the next 6-8 months over how such a network is built and paid for. 

The proposal apparently offers two different plans for protecting cell phones, one involves nationalizing the industry, while the others has the cell phone companies competing with each other to provide safe, hack resistant 5G network.

However sources say option number two is really not the goal as the administration sees only a government controlled network as being "safe."

It seems clear to me that the choices are really to risk the possibility that the Chinese might hack our phones, or hand our service over to the Trump Administration and insure that the Russians will definitely hack our phones.

Keep in mind that this guy does NOT work for us.

Just take a moment to imagine the incredible Right Wing backlash that would have occurred if President Obama had even suggested something remotely similar to this.

They would STILL be screaming about it.

Jared Kushner is likely working for foreign intelligence agencies whether he knows it or not.

Courtesy of Politico: 

The officials said White House aides also were told they should assume that foreign cyberspies had already penetrated their personal email systems to some degree and used that access to vacuum up everything not just on their own computers and phones but those of their contacts. 

The NSA briefers told the Trump aides that using their personal devices for work, including passing files and emails from one system to the other, could give cyberspies access to their work computers and email, too, the officials said. 

If Kushner did not adhere to the security precautions, it could lead to a significant security breach, the officials said, given his access to President Donald Trump and unique portfolio of responsibilities. Kushner, who is Trump’s son-in-law, is the president’s point man on China, Syria, Middle East peace, and Afghanistan, along with innovation, infrastructure and other issues. 

“Jared is probably one of the top five or 10 targets in the U.S. government because of his access to the president and because of the portfolios he’s been given,” said Richard Clarke, a former top cybersecurity advisor to three presidents. “It’s a pretty safe bet that his personal devices have been compromised by foreign intelligence services. And therefore there is some risk that meetings he attends are compromised too.”

We now know, of course, that Kushner has been using a private email account, and since it was clearly to bypass security, it is almost guaranteed that the device is no secure.

Of course I am of the mind that Kushner, and various other administration and White House personnel, are actively working with foreign intelligence agencies.

For example.

But even if they are not, their Keystone Kop approach to security likely means that they may actually know more about what goes on in the White House than the American public. 

Leaked top secret NSA report suggests that the Russian hacking reached deeper into our election than previously believed.

Courtesy of The Intercept:  

Russian Military Intelligence executed a cyberattack on at least one U.S. voting software supplier and sent spear-phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials just days before last November’s presidential election, according to a highly classified intelligence report obtained by The Intercept. 

The top-secret National Security Agency document, which was provided anonymously to The Intercept and independently authenticated, analyzes intelligence very recently acquired by the agency about a months-long Russian intelligence cyber effort against elements of the U.S. election and voting infrastructure. 

The report, dated May 5, 2017, is the most detailed U.S. government account of Russian interference in the election that has yet come to light.The report indicates that Russian hacking may have penetrated further into U.S. voting systems than was previously understood. It states unequivocally in its summary statement that it was Russian military intelligence, specifically the Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU, that conducted the cyber attacks described in the document: 

Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate actors … executed cyber espionage operations against a named U.S. company in August 2016, evidently to obtain information on elections-related software and hardware solutions. … The actors likely used data obtained from that operation to … launch a voter registration-themed spear-phishing campaign targeting U.S. local government organizations.

The NSA analysis does not draw conclusions about whether the interference had any effect on the election’s outcome and concedes that much remains unknown about the extent of the hackers’ accomplishments. However, the report raises the possibility that Russian hacking may have breached at least some elements of the voting system, with disconcertingly uncertain results.

This essentially supports other reports that the Russians tried to hack several voting sites.

We are continually told that the Russian hacking did not actually change any votes, but with this kind of evidence surfacing I am becoming less convinced of that.

According to Business Insider this has stunned some security experts:  

"This is indeed a big deal," said Bob Deitz, a veteran of the NSA and CIA who worked under presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. "We are lucky that US presidential elections are so localized that it is difficult to do an effective hack." 

Claire Finkelstein, a professor and national security expert at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, said of the document, "Wow, this is huge." 

The leaked report is "evidence for the public now to see yet another example of quite a coherent operation" by the Russians, said Glenn Carle, a CIA veteran and former spy. "And that is significant."

 Just the other day Vladimir Putin once again denied that Russia had anything to do with the hacks, and now we have proof he is lying.

Unfortunately the young woman who provided it was immediately arrested.

Reality Winner, arrested for alleged classified leak, is a former US Air Force linguist who speaks Pashto, Farsi & Dari, her mother tells me pic.twitter.com/SQjt13wRw6

— Jon Swaine (@jonswaine) June 5, 2017

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

The Department of Justice on Monday filed a criminal complaint against Reality Leigh Winner, a federal contractor from Georgia, on charges of removing classified information and disseminating it to the Intercept, NBC News reports.

According to the complaint, Winner, a contractor with Pluribus International Corporation, held Top Secret security clearance at a U.S. government facility. She allegedly printed classified information and sent it to an online news organization. Per the DOJ, she admitted to the offense while the FBI executed a search warrant at her home. 

Personally I am not at all sure if the public would ever have known this information without this young woman's help and that concerns me.

Without those willing to risk incarceration to leak some of this information we may all have gone our merry ways, without ever really understanding how our election was hijacked by the Russians.

Dozens of countries hit by hacks using stolen NSA tools.

Courtesy of the New York Times: 

Hackers exploiting malicious software stolen from the National Security Agency executed damaging cyberattacks on Friday that hit dozens of countries worldwide, forcing Britain’s public health system to send patients away, freezing computers at Russia’s Interior Ministry and wreaking havoc on tens of thousands of computers elsewhere. 

The attacks amounted to an audacious global blackmail attempt spread by the internet and underscored the vulnerabilities of the digital age. 

Transmitted via email, the malicious software locked British hospitals out of their computer systems and demanded ransom before users could be let back in — with a threat that data would be destroyed if the demands were not met. 

By late Friday the attacks had spread to more than 74 countries, according to security firms tracking the spread. Kaspersky Lab, a Russian cybersecurity firm, said Russia was the worst-hit, followed by Ukraine, India and Taiwan. Reports of attacks also came from Latin America and Africa. 

The attacks appeared to be the largest ransomware assault on record, but the scope of the damage was hard to measure. It was not clear if victims were paying the ransom, which began at about $300 to unlock individual computers, or even if those who did pay would regain access to their data. 

Finally this hack was stopped by a British blogger who triggered a "kill switch" and essentially turned it off.

Of course Edward Snowden was quick to jump in and blame the whole thing on the NSA.

If @NSAGov had privately disclosed the flaw used to attack hospitals when they *found* it, not when they lost it, this may not have happened https://t.co/lhApAqB5j3

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) May 12, 2017

However let me point out once again that many of these hacks are directly related to the NSA tools that Snowden smuggled out of the country and which ended up in the hands of the Russians.

I know that there are still some Snowden apologists who refuse to believe he is not a hero, but the evidence of his crimes are all around us.

Snowden took sensitive data from the intelligence agency designed to protect America, and let it fall into the hands of those who want to cause harm to America, and other countries as well. 

And Hollywood even made a fucking movie about him.

Edward Snowden is being paid as much as $30,000 to speak by satellite, from the comfort of his Moscow apartment, to American college students. And that is WRONG!

Snowden's Russian ID.

Courtesy of Yahoo News:  

The university paid $30,000 through an American speakers’ bureau to digitally host Snowden, one of his largest known contracts to date, according to documents obtained by Yahoo Finance. The Ohio State event was one of a series of speeches that have netted Snowden — who is still a fugitive in the eyes of the U.S. government — well over $200,000 in the past two years, as Yahoo News first reported last year. He has continued to give paid speeches, including at U.S. colleges, in 2017. 

The ongoing speaking contracts come at a time when Snowden’s fate and influence are more uncertain than ever. A campaign by Snowden’s supporters to win him a pardon was rebuffed by the outgoing Obama White House, and new President Donald Trump previously labeled him a “terrible traitor.” 

Moreover, Snowden’s efforts to present himself as an Internet privacy pioneer are now complicated by an American political environment colored by increasing wariness and hostility toward Snowden’s host since June 2013: Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Gee, no shit!

In my opinion Snowden should receive NO funds from American colleges or universities in the wake of the hack of our 2016 election by the Russians.

I think it is now beyond obvious that this the new Russian expertise in hacking American companies, political organizations, and US citizens is due to their access to the materials that Snowden pilfered from the NSA.

In my opinion Snowden is the worst kind of traitor and I believe his actions have undermined our very democracy,

Keep in mind that it was Julian Assange who sent one of his compatriots to assist Edward Snowden and helped him to gain entry into Russia, after dissuading him from going to Latin America.

As we now know it was through Wikileaks that Russia released the information they hacked during the 2016 campaign, leaving no doubt that they are Russian stooges.

And I am 100% certain that when Snowden arrived in Russia, with the NSA tools that he smuggled out of America, that they immediately found their way into the hands of the FSB, Russian Intelligence, and that THAT was the impetus for all of the hacking and manipulations that we have seen since.

Remember, Wikileaks JUST released those CIA hacking tools.

How could they have possibly gotten their hands on that without the information that Snowden carried with him into Russia?

They couldn't have.

It is time for all of these Snowden fan boys to finally recognize that their idol is at best a "useful tool" of the Russian government, and at worst a spy for Vladimir Putin.

The House Intelligence Chairman just tipped off Donald Trump and his associates that their communications were incidentally gathered by US intelligence agencies. Update!

Courtesy of CNN: 

House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes said Wednesday that President Donald Trump's personal communications may have been picked up by investigators through "incidental collection." 

Nunes said at a news conference he discovered the potential surveillance of Trump himself while reviewing intelligence reports, but said it was not related to Russia. "This is a normal, incidental collection, based on what I could collect," Nunes said. 

"This appears to be all legally collected foreign intelligence under" the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. 

Nunes said he alerted House Speaker Paul Ryan about the collection and is traveling to the White House Wednesday afternoon. 

"I'm actually alarmed by it," Nunes said.

After making this statement to the press Nunes then ran over to the White House to tattle to Donald Trump that he was being surveilled, thereby tipping him, and his associates, off to the fact that they needed to be more careful and destroy any records of past communications that they may want to keep secret.

Reporter: "But, just to clarify, this is not intentional spying on Donald Trump?"
Rep. Nunes: "I have no idea." https://t.co/Okz2bwUl4f pic.twitter.com/tyt6OyigcT

— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 22, 2017

Keep in mind that his is "incidental collection" and does NOT mean that Trump himself, or members of his team, were being directly investigated.

As you might expect Twitter exploded after Nunes made an appearance outside the White House to inform the press of what he did.

Okay----real talk thread----this Nunes story is insane. In my 7 years covering the Hill, never saw something like this from Intel Chair

— Luke Russert (@LukeRussert) March 22, 2017

Nunes must step down. He may have destroyed an entire investigation. Chairman of Oversight has no business alerting possible targets. Shock!

— FemaleOutrage (@FemaleOutrage) March 22, 2017

Nunes, who is supposed to be investigating Trump, is briefing him on leaked info received from undisclosed source. Did not inform Schiff.

— Impeach Donald Trump (@Impeach_D_Trump) March 22, 2017

This is very simple: @DevinNunes must resign from the House Intel Committee immediately, and surrender himself to the FBI for questioning.

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) March 22, 2017

This is story is still unfolding and I will update this post as more info becomes available.

Update: Rep. Adam Schiff weighs in.

Adam Schiff -- top Democrat on Intelligence Cmte -- releases blunt statement on what Congressman Nunes did today: pic.twitter.com/khIBihS1Jd

— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) March 22, 2017

This is all fucking unbelievable.

Update 2: Schiff now saying that evidence of collusion between Trump team and Russia "no longer circumstantial."

.@AdamSchiffCA: the case against Trump of collusion with Russia is "no longer circumstantial." #nunes #TrumpRussia #theResistance pic.twitter.com/qpvvKNTSEk

— #TheResistance (@AynRandPaulRyan) March 22, 2017

Holy shit! No wonder the Trump folks are in a blind panic.

White House has a Twitter meltdown during Comey hearing.

FBI Director Comey refuses to deny he briefed President Obama on calls made by Michael Flynn to Russia. pic.twitter.com/cUZ5KgBSYP

— President Trump (@POTUS) March 20, 2017

I am not entirely sure what point they were trying to make with this tweet, as there were a WHOLE LOT of questions that James Comey answered in a similar fashion.

The NSA and FBI tell Congress that Russia did not influence electoral process. pic.twitter.com/d9HqkxYBt5

— President Trump (@POTUS) March 20, 2017

This one on the other hand was pretty obvious as the White House was clearly hoping this would stop people from suggesting that the Russians stole the election for Trump.

However as Wonkette points out this tweet was actually refuted during the still ongoing hearing:  

In this clip, Nunes is asking whether there is any clear evidence that Russian interference literally flipped vote tallies (like on voting machines) in specific states. Comey and Rogers say no. That is VERY DIFFERENT from saying “Russia did not influence [the] electoral process.” This is simply a #FakeNews lie from the White House, and as such, it can fuck right off. 

For the record, JUST NOW, a Democrat asked Comey to respond to this tweet, and he said he did NOT intend to give the impression the Trump White House is giving, with its lie tweet. JUST FYI.

NSA Director Rogers tells Congress unmasking individuals endangers national security. pic.twitter.com/jTwjPINvNh

— President Trump (@POTUS) March 20, 2017

Also fairly clear why the WH likes this answer because if somebody had not leaked the fact that Mike Flynn was drunk dialing Russia Trump would not have had to fire his ass.

And then would we ever have learned that he was working as a foreign agent for Turkey?

FBI Director Comey says classified leaks to the media have been “unusually active” recently. pic.twitter.com/WumDJSqaFA

— President Trump (@POTUS) March 20, 2017

Yeah, no shit!

People are worried about the future of our country. Of course they are leaking!

FBI Director Comey admits Obama’s White House had ability to “unmask” American citizens. https://t.co/gIo6it9NcQ

— President Trump (@POTUS) March 20, 2017

Here the WH is hinting that perhaps the Obama folks are the source of all the leaks.

Wow, so subtle. 

FBI Director Comey: fmr. DNI Clapper "right" to say no evidence of collusion between Russia and Trump Campaign. #ComeyHearing pic.twitter.com/MqBG2xd4s7

— President Trump (@POTUS) March 20, 2017

To be clear this is only saying that in the intelligence report from January of this year there was no evidence of collusion.

However neither Comey nor NSA Director Rogers would comment on what they have learned since that report.

All in all these tweets smell of desperation.

What we DID learn definitely today is that there is NO evidence that the Obama Administration wiretapped Trump Tower, and that there IS an ongoing FBI investigation into Trump's campaign ties to Russia.

You will notice that the WH did not tweet about either of those facts. 

So to be clear Trump was once again shown to be a liar, and is currently being investigated for possible collusion with the foreign government that hacked our election.

Rep. Adam Schiff's opening remarks before the Comey hearing were epic!

Schiff laid out the entire case, as it is publicly known, against Donald Trump and his team in clear and unambiguous language, and it was amazing.

Former NSA analyst claims that Donald Trump is working with the Russians to target journalists.

Learned fm very reliable IC sources that Trump WH, w/help fm Russian intel, is targeting US journalists. Rough road ahead. Get ready, peeps

— John Schindler (@20committee) March 7, 2017

Courtesy of The Independent:  

US President Donald Trump is allegedly targeting US journalists with help from Russian intelligence, a former National Security Agency (NSA) analyst has claimed. 

John Schindler, a security expert and former counterintelligence officer, tweeted: “Learned fm very reliable IC sources that Trump WH, w/help fm Russian intel, is targeting US journalists. Rough road ahead. Get ready, peeps.” 

It was not immediately clear in what way journalists were allegedly being targeted however the explosive claim is likely to add weight to allegations of Trump-Russia collusion.

This is the second time that this John Schindler guy has dropped a bombshell.

I am still not sure how much credibility we can give him, however we do already know for a fact that the Russians have been targeting American journalists.

And we also know that Trump essentially asked them to hack Hillary Clinton's e-mails.

And Putin has a well known history of targeting journalists.

So from what we already know about Trump, and Putin, is it really that far fetched to think that they might be working together to destroy their mutual enemy?

The press?

Former NSA intelligence analyst says this about Donald Trump "He will die in jail."

US intelligence is not the problem here.

The President's collusion with Russian intelligence is.

Many details, but the essence is simple.

— John Schindler (@20committee) February 15, 2017

Okay well this guy certainly has no qualms about stating that Trump colluded with Russian intelligence.

And get a load of this tweet:

Now we go nuclear. IC war going to new levels. Just got an EM fm senior IC friend, it began: "He will die in jail."https://t.co/e6FxCclVqT

— John Schindler (@20committee) February 15, 2017

Does not get much stronger than that now does it?

John Schindler is in fact a former NSA intelligence analyst who now writes for the Observer.

He actually wrote the article a few days ago that suggested that the intelligence community was withholding classified information from Trump because they feared he might be working with the Russians.

Personally I have a hard time imagining that Trump will ever see the inside of a jail cell, however if this guy feels THIS strongly that would suggest that there is a lot more coming down the pike and that it will quite likely end Trump's presidency.

Hold on to your hats kids, this is certainly going to be a bumpy ride.

Another news report that things inside the Trump White House are going to hell in a handbasket.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

These are chaotic and anxious days inside the National Security Council, the traditional center of management for a president’s dealings with an uncertain world. 

Three weeks into the Trump administration, council staff members get up in the morning, read President Trump’s Twitter posts and struggle to make policy to fit them. Most are kept in the dark about what Mr. Trump tells foreign leaders in his phone calls. Some staff members have turned to encrypted communications to talk with their colleagues, after hearing that Mr. Trump’s top advisers are considering an “insider threat” program that could result in monitoring cellphones and emails for leaks. 

The national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, has hunkered down since investigators began looking into what, exactly, he told the Russian ambassador to the United States about the lifting of sanctions imposed in the last days of the Obama administration, and whether he misled Vice President Mike Pence about those conversations. His survival in the job may hang in the balance. 

Although Mr. Trump suggested to reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday that he was unaware of the latest questions swirling around Mr. Flynn’s dealings with Russia, aides said over the weekend in Florida — where Mr. Flynn accompanied the president and Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe — that Mr. Trump was closely monitoring the reaction to Mr. Flynn’s conversations. There are transcripts of a conversation in at least one phone call, recorded by American intelligence agencies that wiretap foreign diplomats, which may determine Mr. Flynn’s future.

That is just the beginning of an article that goes into much detail about the White House staff's damaged morale and bunker mentality.

However the administration is not so much worried about outside attacks as they are from internal ones, emanating from the president himself who has become so deeply suspicious of all those around him that it inspired some of the staffers to meet at night to discuss purging their social accounts of anything that could be perceived as "anti-Trump."

This report also follows other reports of turmoil within the administration, and the more recent report that the intelligence agencies now consider Trump possibly be a spy for Vladimir Putin.

There are times when I try to imagine how it must feel to have been a Trump voter and to see all of this happening, while desperately trying to pretend that it is not a big deal, or something manufactured by the "liberal" press, or perhaps that it is all just a terrible nightmare.

But I simply can't.

All of this, ALL of it, was easily predicted many months before the actual election, and yet Trump supporters simply refused to see it. 

One has to wonder, can they see it now?

Intelligence agencies are so mistrustful of Donald Trump that they are withholding classified intelligence from him.

Courtesy of the Observer: 

Our Intelligence Community is so worried by the unprecedented problems of the Trump administration—not only do senior officials possess troubling ties to the Kremlin, there are nagging questions about basic competence regarding Team Trump—that it is beginning to withhold intelligence from a White House which our spies do not trust. 

That the IC has ample grounds for concern is demonstrated by almost daily revelations of major problems inside the White House, a mere three weeks after the inauguration. The president has repeatedly gone out of his way to antagonize our spies, mocking them and demeaning their work, and Trump’s personal national security guru can’t seem to keep his story straight on vital issues. 

That’s Mike Flynn, the retired Army three-star general who now heads the National Security Council. Widely disliked in Washington for his brash personality and preference for conspiracy-theorizing over intelligence facts, Flynn was fired as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency for managerial incompetence and poor judgment—flaws he has brought to the far more powerful and political NSC.

Flynn’s problems with the truth have been laid bare by the growing scandal about his dealings with Moscow. Strange ties to the Kremlin, including Vladimir Putin himself, have dogged Flynn since he left DIA, and concerns about his judgment have risen considerably since it was revealed that after the November 8 election, Flynn repeatedly called the Russian embassy in Washington to discuss the transition.

The article goes on to lay out a rather stunning case for why the intelligence agencies feel that Doanld Trump, nor members of his administration, are to be trusted with the state secrets or intelligence concerning our allies as well as our enemies.

I found this portion in particular to be troubling:

What’s going on was explained lucidly by a senior Pentagon intelligence official, who stated that “since January 20, we’ve assumed that the Kremlin has ears inside the SITROOM,” meaning the White House Situation Room, the 5,500 square-foot conference room in the West Wing where the president and his top staffers get intelligence briefings. “There’s not much the Russians don’t know at this point,” the official added in wry frustration.

You know I have, on some level, already assumed much of this.

However having it confirmed by intelligence agents is still a little disconcerting.

After all how can a president and his administration work to protect this country, and make smart decisions, if they have no idea exactly what is actually happening?

So is this article believable? I mean I know it speaks to our own confirmation bias, but does it stand up to scrutiny?

Well first off it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.

Secondly it quotes from a number of other news outlets that are reporting on similar facts about Trump, his ties to Russia, and his disdain for the intelligence community.

There is also the fact that numerous other respectable reporters and news outlets seem to accept the reporting at face value.

Then there is also this article from Politico: 

A top deputy to National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was rejected for a critical security clearance, effectively ending his tenure on the National Security Council and escalating tensions between Flynn and the intelligence community.

Well it is fairly clear that at least one member of Trump's team is unacceptable to the intelligence community.

And Nancy Pelosi essentially feels the same way about Flynn himself: 

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Saturday called for the suspension of Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, until an FBI probe determines the exact nature of his “secret contacts” with Russian officials. The congresswoman also said Flynn should have his security clearance revoked.

So yes all of that, plus what we know already about Trump's troubling ties to Putin, certainly lends an air of credibility to this story.

Which means that I guess we now have some confirmation that Donald Trump is seen by US Intelligence as a potential double agent.

I swear if this were the plot for a TV movie, I would turn it off for being too unbelievable.

Intercepted communications with Russia part of investigation into Trump team.

Courtesy of the New York Times:

American law enforcement and intelligence agencies are examining intercepted communications and financial transactions as part of a broad investigation into possible links between Russian officials and associates of President-elect Donald J. Trump, including his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, current and former senior American officials said. 

The continuing counterintelligence investigation means that Mr. Trump will take the oath of office on Friday with his associates under investigation and after the intelligence agencies concluded that the Russian government had worked to help elect him. As president, Mr. Trump will oversee those agencies and have the authority to redirect or stop at least some of these efforts. 

It is not clear whether the intercepted communications had anything to do with Mr. Trump’s campaign, or Mr. Trump himself. It is also unclear whether the inquiry has anything to do with an investigation into the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s computers and other attempts to disrupt the elections in November. The American government has concluded that the Russian government was responsible for a broad computer hacking campaign, including the operation against the D.N.C. 

The counterintelligence investigation centers at least in part on the business dealings that some of the president-elect’s past and present advisers have had with Russia.

Mr. Manafort is among at least three Trump campaign advisers whose possible links to Russia are under scrutiny. Two others are Carter Page, a businessman and former foreign policy adviser to the campaign, and Roger Stone, a longtime Republican operative.

If Trump does ANYTHING to stop these investigations we will know that he fears what they will find, and THAT should be enough to start a real drive to impeach him. 

I'm not saying that that action alone is an impeachable offense, I am just suggesting that it would fire up lawmakers to find the information that we all already know exists to remove him from office.

This idiot could already be selling, or simply giving, our secrets to his Russian handlers, and the longer he is in office the more at risk he puts our country and our people.

Six law enforcement and intelligence agencies investigating possible covert Russian aid to Donald Trump and his campaign.

Courtesy of McClatchy DC: 

The FBI and five other law enforcement and intelligence agencies have collaborated for months in an investigation into Russian attempts to influence the November election, including whether money from the Kremlin covertly aided President-elect Donald Trump, two people familiar with the matter said. 

The agencies involved in the inquiry are the FBI, the CIA, the National Security Agency, the Justice Department, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and representatives of the director of national intelligence, the sources said. 

Investigators are examining how money may have moved from the Kremlin to covertly help Trump win, the two sources said. One of the allegations involves whether a system for routinely paying thousands of Russian-American pensioners may have been used to pay some email hackers in the United States or to supply money to intermediaries who would then pay the hackers, the two sources said. 

You know widespread investigations like this don't start unless there is good evidence that one is necessary.

This from Mother Jones: 

That's an awful lot of agencies investigating an awful lot of allegations against an awful lot of people. And as the article says, you can't get a warrant unless you can demonstrate at least some kind of plausible probable cause. That means these folks are working off a lot more than just the famous dossier produced by the ex-MI6 spy.

This could be big.

Let's all stay tuned shall we?

Trump throws Twitter tantrum in response to intelligence briefing.

Gross negligence by the Democratic National Committee allowed hacking to take place.The Republican National Committee had strong defense!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2017

You know the problem with lying after a report is declassified, is that people can check the report and see that you are lying.

For instance: 

Russia collected on some Republican-affiliated targets but did not conduct a comparable disclosure campaign.

It's not that Russia could not hack the Republicans, they DID hack the Republicans.

It's just that, unlike the data they stole from the Democrats, they did not leak any of that information because they wanted the Republicans, and their puppet, to win in 2016.

Intelligence stated very strongly there was absolutely no evidence that hacking affected the election results. Voting machines not touched!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2017

Also false. See my post from yesterday.

Only reason the hacking of the poorly defended DNC is discussed is that the loss by the Dems was so big that they are totally embarrassed!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2017

No it is because they used that information to help a totally unqualified candidate, who they could manipulate, "win" the presidency.

Well it looks like it's time for Trump to attempt to sweep this all under the rug, and tell us all to move on again.

Having a good relationship with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing. Only "stupid" people, or fools, would think that it is bad! We.....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2017

have enough problems around the world without yet another one. When I am President, Russia will respect us far more than they do now and....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2017

both countries will, perhaps, work together to solve some of the many great and pressing problems and issues of the WORLD!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2017

To be clear this is our new commander-in-chief telling us to ignore the fact that the Russians stole information from the government and political organizations in order to manipulate the outcome of our election, so that we can all be friends again.

Just for a moment, try to imagine how Doanld Trump would be reacting if this whole thing were switched around and Russia had hacked HIS friends and political party in order to steal the election for Hillary. 

Well that is how all of us should continue to react to what actually happened.

Donald Trump finally has that intelligence briefing, acknowledges "possibility" that Russia hacked DNC, claims it changed nothing.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

President-elect Donald J. Trump acknowledged the possibility on Friday that Russia had hacked a variety of American targets, including the Democratic National Committee, after an almost two-hour meeting with the nation’s top intelligence officials. 

Mr. Trump asserted the hacking had no effect on the outcome of the election.

Here is Trump's full statement after the briefing:  

"While Russia, China, other countries, outside groups and people are consistently trying to break through the cyber infrastructure of our governmental institutions, businesses and organizations including the Democrat National Committee, there was absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election including the fact that there was no tampering whatsoever with voting machines. There were attempts to hack the Republican National Committee, but the RNC had strong hacking defenses and the hackers were unsuccessful," Trump said in a statement released after the session. 

"Whether it is our government, organizations, associations or businesses we need to aggressively combat and stop cyberattacks.”

Trump then announced plans to appoint a team to look into cyber security during the first 90 days of his presidency.

(Personally I don't know why he simply does not call up Vlad and ask him how he did it and to please stop doing it.)

For their part the NSA, CIA, and FBI jointly released a declassified version of the report that Donald Trump, President Obama, and other key officials have just seen.

I found this part in particular rather informative:

We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election. Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump. We have high confidence in these judgments. 

We also assess Putin and the Russian Government aspired to help President- elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him. All three agencies agree with this judgment. CIA and FBI have high confidence in this judgment; NSA has moderate confidence. 

Moscow’s approach evolved over the course of the campaign based on Russia’s understanding of the electoral prospects of the two main candidates. When it appeared to Moscow that Secretary Clinton was likely to win the election, the Russian influence campaign began to focus more on undermining her future presidency. 

Further information has come to light since Election Day that, when combined with Russian behavior since early November 2016, increases our confidence in our assessments of Russian motivations and goals. 

Based on this, Trump's contention that these hacks had no impact is absolutely ridiculous. 

Perhaps they did not hack the voting machines themselves, but they clearly hacked into the minds of the American voters and helped to shape their opinion of Hillary Clinton and the DNC.

And before somebody makes the claim that all the hacks did was reveal information about the DNC and Clinton which upset the voters, you must remember that these snippets of e-mails were constantly being misrepresented or exaggerated to the point where they often did not even remotely resemble the original source.

It took almost an army of fact checkers to go back and explain what the sensational headlines got wrong, but sadly the publications which corrected the lies rarely showed up on people's Facebook news feeds.

But as for whether the Russian hacks changed the outcome of the election I would go a little deeper, as far back as 2013, when a hacker named Guccifer hacked the e-mail of Clinton pal Sid Blumenthal.

Now though Guccifer, real name Marcel Lazar Lehel, was supposedly Romanian, his IP address was traced back to Russia.

Not only that but subsequent leaks came from a number of folks all using the pseudonym Guccifer 2.0. (I hardly think that is a coincidence.)

And those leaks have now been determined  (Read the report) to have come from Russian hackers. 

So if this first Guccifer was ALSO a Russian operative, that would mean that since it was from Blumenthal's e-mails that we first learned of Hillary's private server, which then of course inspired the GOP led congressional witch hunt, that also provided ammunition for James Comey's eleventh hour suggestion that Clinton might still be indicted, then that would mean that virtually EVERYTHING that damaged Hillary's credibility and undermined her character came directly from Russian directed hacking.

And yes, THAT most definitely impacted the outcome of this election.

In short this report should disqualify Donald J. Trump from being sworn in as our 45th president, because a hostile foreign government interceded to help him to win that title.

And America, the home of democracy, simply cannot let that stand. Period!

Donald Trump puts off press conference. Falsely blames delay on intelligence community.

The "Intelligence" briefing on so-called "Russian hacking" was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017

That was the tweet Trump sent out yesterday referring to the press conference that he promised to hold today concerning the Russians hacking our election.

Did you notice that Trump put intelligence in quotation marks?

The problem is that according to the intelligence folks that briefing was ALWAYS scheduled for Friday: 

A senior U.S. intelligence official with direct knowledge of the situation told NBC News Tuesday night that the heads of the NSA, CIA, FBI and the director of national intelligence were always scheduled to meet with Trump on Friday. 

But here's the thing, as the president elect Trump can essentially get a briefing pretty much every single day.

We already know that many Senators, including Lindsay Graham and John McCain, have been briefed and believe firmly that the Russians are behind these hacks, so how can Trump not know?

Perhaps because he does not WANT to know.

Julian Assange said "a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta" - why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017

"@FoxNews: Julian Assange on U.S. media coverage: “It’s very dishonest.” #Hannity pic.twitter.com/ADcPRQifH9" More dishonest than anyone knows

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017

So Trump is now openly questioning the findings of the American intelligence community and instead choosing to believe Julian Assange. 

And you know the reason for that is because he is worried that the reports by the intelligence community, and there is a big report by the CIA headed to the President's desk in the next few days, will de-legitimize his election and undermine his ability to lead this country.

Which, in my opinion, is exactly what they should do.

#NotMyPresident

Wall Street Journal reporter eviscerates legend of Edward Snowden.

As I think I have made clear on this blog multiple times I have long thought that the information Snowden stole from the NSA had ended up in Putin's hands and that it was instrumental in helping him to hack into our various agencies.

This article by Edward Jay Epstein at the Wall Street Journal provides support for that assessment.

On what he took:

The number of purloined documents is more than what NSA officials were willing to say in 2013 about the removal of data, possibly because the House committee had the benefit of the Pentagon’s more-extensive investigation. But even just taking into account the material that Mr. Snowden handed over to journalists, the December House report concluded that he compromised “secrets that protect American troops overseas and secrets that provide vital defenses against terrorists and nation-states.” These were, the report said, “merely the tip of the iceberg.” 

The Pentagon’s investigation during 2013 and 2014 employed hundreds of military-intelligence officers, working around the clock, to review all 1.5 million documents. Most had nothing to do with domestic surveillance or whistle blowing. They were mainly military secrets, as Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified before the House Armed Services Committee on March 6, 2014. 

It was not the quantity of Mr. Snowden’s theft but the quality that was most telling. Mr. Snowden’s theft put documents at risk that could reveal the NSA’s Level 3 tool kit—a reference to documents containing the NSA’s most-important sources and methods. Since the agency was created in 1952, Russia and other adversary nations had been trying to penetrate its Level-3 secrets without great success. 

Yet it was precisely these secrets that Mr. Snowden changed jobs to steal. In an interview in Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post on June 15, 2013, he said he sought to work on a Booz Allen contract at the CIA, even at a cut in pay, because it gave him access to secret lists of computers that the NSA was tapping into around the world.

In short Snowden absconded with the very information that foreign governments, such as Russia, had been trying to get their hands on for years.

And not only did he take them, he delivered them by hand to their very doorstep.

But didn't Snowden only end up in Russia because the United States pulled his Visa?

Nope.

The State Department invalidated Mr. Snowden’s passport while he was still in Hong Kong, not after he left for Moscow on June 23. The “Consul General-Hong Kong confirmed that Hong Kong authorities were notified that Mr. Snowden’s passport was revoked June 22,” according to the State Department’s senior watch officer, as reported by ABC news on June 23, 2013. By falsely claiming his passport was invalidated after the plane departed Hong Kong—instead of before he left—Mr. Snowden hoped to conceal this extraordinary waiver. The Russian government further revealed its helping hand, judging by a report in Russia’s Izvestia newspaper when, on arrival, Mr. Snowden was taken off the plane by a security team in a “special operation.” 

Nor was it any kind of accident. Vladimir Putin personally authorized this assistance after Mr. Snowden met with Russian officials in Hong Kong, as Mr. Putin admitted in a televised press conference on Sept. 2, 2013.

Okay but Snowden claims that he destroyed what he took from the NSA before he landed in Russia.

Yeah. not so much.

I went to Moscow in October 2015 to see Mr. Kucherena. During our conversation, Mr. Kucherena confirmed that his interview with Ms. Shevardnadze was accurate, and that Mr. Snowden had brought secret material with him to Moscow. 

Mr. Snowden’s narrative also includes the assertion that he was neither debriefed by nor even met with any Russian government official after he arrived in Moscow. This part of the narrative runs counter to findings of U.S. intelligence. According to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence report, Mr. Snowden, since he arrived in Moscow, “has had, and continues to have, contact with Russian intelligence services.” This finding is consistent with Russian debriefing practices, as described by the ex-KGB officers with whom I spoke in Moscow.

Wikileaks is mentioned as playing a role in helping Snowden make contacts in Russia, and in helping him cover his tracks, so you can bet they, and their surrogates, are going to attack this article quite aggressively. 

And since this reporter uses information provided to him by the Pentagon, the NSA, and Kremlin insiders there are those who will dismiss it as nothing more than propaganda promoted by the Obama Administration.

However before anybody dismisses this out of hand, think back to the pattern of attacks that we have seen on the DNC, the Clinton Campaign, the State Department, the White House, and even the freaking NSA itself, and ask yourself how were these attacks so damn successful?

And even before you saw this article, did you not kind of think that they must have some inside information?

Well I most certainly did, and I am pretty damn sure that I know where that information came from.

Remember what I said in an earlier post about foreign governments not helping candidates win elections unless there is something in it for them?

Yeah, well the same holds true for former NSA employees who steal state secrets.

Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.

.@jonathanchait Cousins in Putin's worldwide web. pic.twitter.com/5gipj5j6tE

— Mykola Molodyko (@molodyko) December 29, 2016

I will admit that some of this is a little exaggerated, but not by much in my opinion.

I really do think that Putin's incredible success with hacking lately is directly tied to the information that Edward Snowden stole from the NSA and then took with him to Russia.

FBI now backs CIA assessment that Russia hacked the election to help Donald Trump win. Update: Hillary Clinton weighs in.

Courtesy of the Washington Post:

FBI Director James B. Comey and Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. have backed a CIA assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election in part to help Donald Trump win the presidency, according to U.S. officials. 

Comey’s support for the CIA’s conclusion suggests that the leaders of the three agencies are in agreement on Russian intentions, contrary to suggestions by some lawmakers that the FBI disagreed with the CIA. 

“Earlier this week, I met separately with (Director) FBI James Comey and DNI Jim Clapper, and there is strong consensus among us on the scope, nature, and intent of Russian interference in our presidential election,” CIA Director John Brennan said in a message to the agency’s workforce, according to U.S. officials who have seen the message.

“The three of us also agree that our organizations, along with others, need to focus on completing the thorough review of this issue that has been directed by President Obama and which is being led by the DNI,” Brennan’s message read.

Trump has consistently dismissed the intelligence community’s findings about Russian hacking. 

The CIA and FBI declined to comment.

Okay this is big news as the FBI hesitance to jump on board with the CIA was the talking point used by the Right Wing to suggest that the CIA was not credible in their assessment.

I have no idea what Donald Trump and the conservatives can now use to cast doubt on these findings, since, whether the public has seen it or not, whatever evidence the NSA and CIA have in their possession made James Comey a believer.

I also have no idea how we can legitimize this election based on what we know was done to undermine its result.

Update: Here is Hillary's take:

Hillary Clinton said on Thursday that the hacking attacks carried out by Russia against her campaign and the Democratic National Committee were intended “to undermine our democracy” and were ordered by Vladimir V. Putin “because he has a personal beef against me.” 

Speaking to a group of donors in Manhattan, Mrs. Clinton said that Mr. Putin, the Russian president, had never forgiven her for the accusation she made in 2011, when she was secretary of state, that parliamentary elections his country held that year were rigged. 

“Putin publicly blamed me for the outpouring of outrage by his own people, and that is the direct line between what he said back then and what he did in this election,” Mrs. Clinton said. 

“Make no mistake, as the press is finally catching up to the facts, which we desperately tried to present to them during the last months of the campaign,” Mrs. Clinton told the group, which collectively poured roughly $1 billion into her effort. “This is not just an attack on me and my campaign, although that may have added fuel to it. This is an attack against our country. We are well beyond normal political concerns here. This is about the integrity of our democracy and the security of our nation.”

THAT is the President we were supposed to have, the President that we deserved.

Not that orange baboon with the stubby fingers.