Russia if you are listening - Donald Trump is still deaf to the Russia threat

Echo opinion published in the Idaho State Journal by columnist Jim Jones (In my opinion, Donald Trump's teenage crush on Vladimir Putin is unpatriotic and his behavior towards Russia's dictator is disgusting. I have already warned Russian bots, who are now reappearing on my Twitter feed, they will be "blocked" and reported to @Twitter)

Christopher A. Wray is the current Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

Opinion echo from Idaho:  Christopher Wray, the FBI director, warned on April 26 that Russian interference in the 2020 election presents a “significant counterintelligence threat.” His warning followed the Worldwide Threat Assessment issued by U.S. intelligence agencies in January.

The WTA predicted that in 2020, “Moscow may employ additional influence tool kits —such as spreading disinformation, conducting hack-and-leak operations or manipulating data — in a more targeted fashion to influence U.S. policy, actions and elections.” Wray characterized Russia’s malign cyber-warfare as “pretty much a 365-day-a-year threat.”

Despite Robert Mueller’s detailed and chilling report on the extent of Russian efforts to manipulate the 2016 election, President Trump remains unconvinced and unconcerned. He has not taken it upon himself to rally Americans against this serious threat, nor has he taken decisive punitive action against the aggressors.

Instead, Trump has either ignored or downplayed the malevolent Russian attack on our country. When the former Homeland Security Secretary tried to organize a coordinated defense of our 2020 election, she was discouraged by Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s chief of staff. Mulvaney reportedly told her that the Russian interference issue “wasn’t a great subject and should be kept below (Trump’s) level.

Trump’s son-in-law, apparently taking his cue from the top, blew off the Russian election attack as “a couple of Facebook ads (?!).” 

Trumpzi-in-law should read the 199 pages of Volume One of the Mueller Report, where (Jared) Kushner appears with some regularity. Mueller details a concerted Russian effort to influence the 2016 election by illegal hacking of computers, distribution of hacked documents, and sophisticated targeting of social media.

Some congressional Republicans have urged a much more muscular response to Putin’s aggression and have worked with Democrats to put a stop to it. The President has gone along grudgingly but nowhere near sufficiently. I fervently pray it is not because he hopes to once again benefit from Russian help.

Trump seems to think that acknowledging the wide-ranging nature of the Russian influence operation and its potential impact on the election result is a threat to his legitimacy in office.

Get over it, Trump! You won the electoral college vote and nobody is going to be able to dislodge you from office simply because of Putin’s handiwork. 

But, the Russian influence operation may have been sufficient to swing the election in your direction, or that could have been accomplished by Jim Comey’s blundering efforts, but it is water under the bridge.

What is critical at this juncture is to put the election behind and govern — protect the country from its enemies, rebuild our infrastructure, try to solve the growing income equality in the country, work to reform the immigration system, try to preserve the American dream, combat the existential threat of climate change and so much more.

The President reminds me of some clients I had during my 25 years of private law practice. Instead of moving forward with their lives, they insisted on re-litigating the past — dwelling upon past mistreatment and slights, rather than living to make a better life in the present and future. It is a losing strategy, both for that person and for those around the disgruntled person.

It’s high time to move past the 2016 election and focus on the future. Whether or not the election result was questionable, there is a future to deal with, problems to address, lives to productively live. A bruised presidential ego does not take priority over the security of the United States.

Jim Jones served as an Army artillery officer in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969 and received an Army Commendation Medal for his work with an orphanage there. He served for eight years as Idaho Attorney General and was a justice on the Idaho Supreme Court for 12 years. He currently resides in Boise.

Fake Barr letter - at least ten unanswered questions

An echo opinion from David Leonhardt published in The New York Times.  MaineWriter opinion, the reason these questions are outstanding with pundits are because the Muller Investigation was shut down before they could be answered.Americans must see the Mueller Report still haven’t seen the Mueller report

Here are 10 big questions, compiled with help from articles that appeared elsewhere (David Leonhardt*):

1. Did Robert Mueller find evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, but that the collusion was not criminal?

2. Related: Why did Barr’s four-page summary appear to define coordination with Russia so narrowly — as an “agreement” between the Trump campaign and the Russian government — and does this word choice suggest that the Mueller investigation found coordination that did not rise to the level of an agreement?

3. What did Mueller discover about Paul Manafort — Trump’s campaign chairman — having shared poll data with a political operative who had apparent ties to Russian military intelligence? (Manafort’s lawyers inadvertently revealed those interactions earlier this year.)

4. Why did Trump and his associates repeatedly lie about their contacts with Russians?

5. Why did Mueller not charge Jerome Corsi, a conservative conspiracy promulgator and an associate of Roger Stone, despite reportedly engaging in plea negotiations with Corsi last year?

6. Does the arrest of Maria Butina, a Russian spy with ties to the National Rifle Association, have anything to do with Mueller’s investigation?

7. Did Mueller find evidence that the activities of Trump or his aides have compromised national security?

8. Did Mueller find any evidence of efforts by the United Arab Emirates and other Middle Eastern countries to influence the 2016 election?

9. Did Mueller issue no decision about obstruction of justice because he believed a sitting president could not be charged with a crime — and thus the decision was ultimately a political matter, to be decided by Congress, rather than a legal one?

10. Did Mueller investigate the possibility that Trump’s businesses helped Russian criminals launder money before he became president, or did Mueller consider this beyond the scope of his investigation? (If he investigated and found no evidence, it would reduce the urgency for the House to pursue this matter.)

*This echo opinion was published in The New York Times by David Leonhardt.  In Maine Writer Opinion, the reason these questions are unanswered are because the Robert Mueller investigation was shut down before he was finished. 

Donald Trump is a Russian asset- echo opinion

An essay published in the Daily Kos by Aldous J. Pennyfarthing

Russia expert: 

All signs point to Trump being compromised by Putin

Vladimir Putin is controlling Donald Trump.  Americans must fire Donald Trump because he's a dangerous threat to our democracy.

"...conversations between the president and Putin are bit merely some personal matter. Such discussions might, in fact, need to be confidential; sensitive diplomacy often requires a close hold on the informal back-and-forth between top leaders. But, their content should be known, at the very least, to the administration’s own top intelligence and foreign policy advisers."

Tom Nichols is a national security professor at the Naval War College and a Russia expert, and he just said out loud what, well, I and everyone at DKos say out loud, too: namely that Trump is way, way compromised by Putin’s Russia. 

Then again, Nichols is a Russia expert and my Russia expertise is pretty much limited to whatever Yakov Smirnoff (a Soviet-born American comedian, actor and writer.) says — and he’s not talking these days, unless you pay to see him Branson, Missouri. 

And there’s a hard limit to what I’m willing to do for my country, so …

Nichols, of course, mentions the recent bombshell report about the counterintelligence investigation the FBI launched against the pr*sident, and notes the high evidentiary bar required to initiate such an investigation. 

Then he goes on to discuss the other weekend bombshell — that Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to hide the details of his discussions with Putin from his own senior staff. And then there’s the fresh fusillade of panic-tweeting from the much-whoremongering candidate.

But then Nichols adds some context:

Trump’s behavior regarding Russia has always presented a serious security concern. But when Trump fires the director of the FBI, and then brags about it to actual Russians, only the most stupid or craven law enforcement agency would decline to investigate what to any counterintelligence officer would be the brightest of dozens of flashing red lights. The White House communications shop can throw invective at James Comey and other Justice Department officials, but the FBI had no choice. It was doing the job Americans count on it to do.

Second, the president’s attempts to hide the content of his conversations with Putin are not only abnormal but also deeply suspect. The intelligence community, members of Congress and the public should always be anxious whenever any American official talks to a top Russian leader and then tries to seize the notes. This kind of behavior violates practices of sensible diplomacy and intelligence analysis, and no one acts this way for innocent reasons.

Nor are conversations between the president and Putin merely some personal matter. Such discussions might in fact need to be confidential; sensitive diplomacy often requires a close hold on the informal back-and-forth between top leaders. But their content should be known at the very least to the administration’s own top intelligence and foreign policy advisers.

At best, this is an aperitif for us all to sip on before Mueller rolls out the seven-course meal, but it’s interesting to see how people with unusual insight into Russia view all this.

Safe to say, they’re not seeing it through red state-colored glasses.