Month: December 2016

Based on evidence from the CIA and other important intelligence agencies, the Russians interfered with the 2016 Presidential Election, by way of an extensive e-mail hacking scheme. It’s important to note that these intelligence services are the most important and accurate sources of information for critical decision making in the U.S. government, with extensive networks of experts gathering and analyzing data.

Clearly the Russians wanted to make sure Donald Trump was elected, and Hillary Clinton was not. Intelligence experts believe two Kremlin-affiliated groups, operating independently, were responsible for the hacks, one from Russian Military Intelligence, and the other from the FSB Spy Agency. And Vladimir Putin appears to have been involved with the schemes.

The Russian leader has great enmity for Hillary Clinton, going back over four years. He believes she was responsible for a wave of protests in 2011 and 2012, when Putin ran for a third Presidential term. He believes that the protesters were paid by Clinton, who was still Secretary of State in President Obama’s administration, in an attempt to meddle with the Russian election. So the 2016 election hacks were essentially payback for Clinton, from Putin’s point of view. Putin was basically taking revenge.

In contrast, Putin’s view of Trump is much more favorable. He’s viewed as a fresh face, sans baggage, and a deal-maker with whom he can negotiate, not as an ideological hard-liner, and personal enemy, like Clinton. And Trump’s pick for secretary of state, Rex W. Tillerson (President and CEO of Exxon Mobil) sits well with Putin, who has negotiated many favorable deals with Tillerson for the drilling of fossil fuels.

Tillerson is quite close to Putin, and the Russian government even awarded him the country’s Friendship Decoration in 2012. Clearly the Trump administration is poised to do a lot of business with Russia in the energy markets over the next four or more years. And so, in addition to a great deal of personal bad blood between Hillary Clinton and Vladimir Putin, Russia has some pretty clear economic interests at stake, making it logical for the Russian government to prefer a Trump victory in the U.S. Presidential election.

So at this point we must ask, what’s wrong with the U.S., what’s wrong with American Citizens, and what on earth is wrong with the Democratic Party? We have clear evidence, from top intelligence services, particularly the CIA, that Vladimir Putin’s Russia hacked the U.S., and conspired to influence the election in favor of Donald Trump, who in fact ended up the actual winner.

In other words, a foreign power put its thumb on the scale of our election process, and was rewarded with exactly what it wanted! This is obviously an outrage, but nonetheless, many stand by passively. Where’s the outcry? Where’s the fiery concern for democracy and the sacred inviolability of the vote? Americans, and America’s Democrats in particular, need to stand up and be counted. They simply can’t allow this to pass.

For 70 years the preeminent power in the world has been the United States. Is that now changing? Was our 2016 election actually Russia’s great moment of triumph, its ascendancy to influence on the world’s stage, following it’s time in the doldrums of power after the collapse of the old Soviet Union? Has Russia finally outplayed the United States?

So what should we do in response to the hacking scandal? Surely something. Not simply—-nothing. Should we delay the Electoral College vote by a week or more, to help figure this mess out? Maybe. Should we declare the election results null and void, due to foreign interference, and run a new election? Probably. Are the American People and the Democratic Party so soft, so disinterested and sheep-like, that they…that WE… simply let this outrage pass? Shouldn’t we, for the love of our country, freedom and democracy, take this terrible revelation as a chance, and a reason, to take decisive action, and start over again?

Photo: By DonkeyHotey – Vladimir Putin carrying his buddy Donald Trump, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link