What Would A Russkie Do?

Did Putin deliberately try to tip the election towards Trump? Has the CIA become a political pawn of the Obama Administration?

The answers could be yes, and yes. Or - brace yourself for a Brave Insight - it may be more complicated.

Just for example, the end source for most of the leaks was Wikileaks, run by Julian Assange. Mr. Assange was certainly perceived as a foe of Hillary Clinton. That was based merely on his history and interviews, so maybe his denial of personal animus merits a grain of salt.

Assange also denied having any Trump documents. Plausible? Well, Assange was looking for news. The 'revelation' that the DNC was pushing Hillary and quashing Bernie certainly roiled that party, and even the NY Times pretended (during the Bernie Spring) that they wanted a look at her Goldman Sachs speeches. Would a similar revelation that the RNC was working hard for "Anybody But Trump" surprise or upset anyone? Sure, the post-primary Republican fellowship and good feeling would look even phonier, but so what?

So maybe the Russians gave a trove of RNC and DNC documents to a middleman with his own agenda and news judgment and Assange never thought the RNC stuff met his standards or agenda.

Or maybe Putin really did favor Trump. Set aside their apparent bromance - a major concern about a Trump Presidency is that he would disrupt the current world order with his unique conception of "diplomacy". Chaos and opportunity are related, as Putin well knows. Putin would like to re-shuffle a deck he believes is stacked in favor of the US; Trump seems to prefer 52 Pick Up. Either way, Putin might figure this will give him lots of room to maneuver.

On the other hand, it is not as if these fears only sprung into being on Nov 9. The foreign policy hazards of a Trump victory were mooted for months.

As to why the FBI and the ODNI can't get on board with the CIA assessment, well, let me ask this - if the CIA is a Democratic stronghold, how are they still holding the fort with Obama a lame duck and Hillary not riding to the rescue? But let me close with a longshot "Obama is an Underated Genius" suggestion: by getting Trump on record as doubting the CIA now, Trump will be undermined when the CIA eventually concludes that Iran is cheating left, right and center on Obama's Iran deal. Yeah! That's it!

Of course, that imputes foresight to Obama and consistency to Trump, so really, this speculation is a three legged stool missing at least two legs. Hmm, call it a stool sample...

Comments

[henry]

Its all a swamp. I really don't care which uniform the mosquitoes are wearing. Drain it.

[Beasts of England]

Brennan would never politicize our intelligence, amirite?

[Show me the temperatures.]

Trump has a new job for Gavin Schmidt of GISS and RealClimate: Monitoring the rectal temps of polar bears.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

When a government institution's collective memory and competence no longer offset it's incompetence, meddling and bureaucratic self interest it is almost always time to junk it and start over from scratch rather than trying to reform the unreformable.
The CIA reached that point at least a couple of decades ago.

[dublindave]

FROM THE LAST THREAD(cause I'm kinda egotistical)

"But isn't it ironically partisan to take an objective intelligence finding and then to spin it as a political hit job simply because it damages the legitimacy of your chosen candidate" --DD

"When it leaked to the press, it stopped being "objective . . ."' --some idiot

Eh, yeah, no it didn't. Unless your websters definition of the word 'objective' is completely different to mine. How information is delivered or why it's delivered does not change the substance of the information itself.

See, as a dopey ignorant drunken mick living in a florida trailer this is also why I hate Trump. He has no basic street smarts. If the most power intelligence gathering/career destroying ,assassinating agency in the world says that Russia was plotting to install you into the Whitehouse...... don't hit back at them........agree with them.Thank then for their tireless dedication and order an investigation into said attack and THAT....JUST THAT..puts a muzzle on the C.I.A doggies. Any move they make against you thereafter appears partisan in nature, something they'll avoid at all costs
Questioning the validity of their findings only gives them an excuse to validate their findings......over a period of months, years.

No street smarts this trump guy. It's why these rich guys don't make good politicians.....they never had to survive on the streets. To placate a man who is a threat to you without appearing weak is an artform.

[dublindave]

Damn, I'm on fire today....Mozart, taliskers,politics........the sun is shining and Trump is imploding....it's a good day to be alive(be even better If the person who won the election by 3 million votes were in power).

[JM Hanes]

I knew there would be a new thread, the second after I hit "POST" in the last thread, so I hope folks don't mind if I bring it over here.

cheerleader:

The difference between fake news and real news is often subtle. Unfortunately, combining the two produces some of the most effective propaganda of all. Your two paragraphs, my emphasis:

"The two top Republicans in Congress offered strong support for the intelligence community Monday, in sharp contrast to President-elect Donald Trump’s attack on the CIA after reports the agency found that the Russian government tried to help him win the presidency.

McConnell singled out the Central Intelligence Agency for praise and said the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services panels will investigate findings by intelligence agencies that Russia hacked into e-mails and computers used in the presidential campaign."

One of these things is not like the other. As far as I know, the conclusions about the Russian government's motives in paragraph one came from a single anonymous "senior administration official" who was tellingly not even identified as a member of the "intelligence community." This is such a typical Dem tactic. If they can husband something into the MSM, no matter how sketchy the source, they can run with it forever after (remember those bigly debunked Iraq casualty figures that the Lancet put out?). After that it's conflation, conflation, conflation. A media outlet combines the CIA findings and the Senior Official's opinion in the same article, et voila you get John Podesta in the NPR story linked earlier by the Iconographer:

"We now know that the CIA has determined Russia's interference in our elections was for the purpose of electing Donald Trump. This should distress every American," Podesta continued.

This kind of thing goes on all the time, and it drives me crazy. Just the other day someone at a major outlet casually substituted "voter suppression measures" for voter I.D. legislation, as if the two were simply interchangeable terms.

[GUS]

Rodham was a HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL Sec State. She drank with a lot of despots and leaders.
Certainly RODHAM would be aware of other NATIONS trying to HACK AMERICANS.

Yet the IGNORANT MONEY GRUBBING BITCH decided to put hers and THE RAPISTS info and SERVER in the SHITTER at a small I.T. firm in DENVER.

Ok.

[Janet ~ an obnoxious Trump supporter]

If you are against pipelines then do your part and shut off the one bringing gas to your house.

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/15326346_10158047574285314_8668310210455414791_n.jpg?oh=46654bb2d13ce07e2d0fe05c4a6a2525&oe=58F4BDE2

[JM Hanes]

LOL DuDa!

"How information is delivered or why it's delivered does not change the substance of the information itself."

You need to be trolling lefty sites with that message!

[henry]

Oh boy, look what Trump did now: 42 million children starving. Amazing they were all eating pizza November 7.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Hey kim,
Didn't Nick Stokes get sorta run off of Climate Audit for not being up to snuff on statistics and math and amounting to being a pest or am I thinking of someone else?

[Long term unsustainability for lies. It's the short term that is the rub.]

Thanks, JMH, for posting twice that elegant exposition of the left's sophisticated technique of telling The Big Lie.

[rich]

Posted by: Appalled | December 13, 2016 at 08:23 AM

In re: your comment on Russia on the last page. Here is a bit of the Obama Administration's incompetence and corruption on display: they meet in April 2014 with Wall Street fund managers to discuss the administration's Russia sanctions policy. The article has the most positive spin ... I'm sure one could spin it more negatively (which would be a more fair interpretation).

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-04-18/u-s-said-to-have-warned-money-managers-of-more-russia-sanctions

[Buckeye]

daddy

Really enjoyed last nights thread re: Fag 1.

I don't remember if I every ask you if you knew Mike Reynolds, USN?

He was ManTran's primary and my instrument instructor here in Columbus.

Sometime I will tell you about practicing ILS approaches in severe icing conditions. Mike thought it was a good idea to learn how to manage the pucker factor:)

I think, if memory serves me correct, he flew and instructed Tomcats.

[rich]

great comment JM Hanes.

[JM Hanes]

DuDa:

"So, where are you on figuring out Russia's desire to roll back the 2014 sanctions against them?"

I'm for making sure we get something big in return for it, if we do -- unlike our feckless current Prez, who repeatedly caved to Putin for nothing at all.

[dublindave]

"How information is delivered or why it's delivered does not change the substance of the information itself."

"You need to be trolling lefty sites with that message"

Yeah,I wouldn't try to take on my statement either. It's one of those pieces of logic that's set in stone. Moving on is a good call.

keep moving....

[Cecil Turner]

The answers could be yes, and yes. Or - brace yourself for a Brave Insight - it may be more complicated.

I strongly suspect it is. But in any event, it ought not be playing out in the press. As laughable as our information security is, our operational security is often worse.

OBTW, there is no "e" in Russki.

[dublindave]

DuDa:
"So, where are you on figuring out Russia's desire to roll back the 2014 sanctions against them?"

"I'm for making sure we get something big in return for it, if we do -- unlike our feckless current Prez, who repeatedly caved to Putin for nothing at all"

Yeah, I'm not sure a bronze statue of 'the Donald' in red square qualifies.

Pull your boxers up man, you're embarrassing yourself. Stand up straight. Put the KY jelly away, for fucks sake their(ruskies) looking at us.

[dublindave]

sorry...sorry...they're....taliskers....sorry

[The truth, nothing but the truth, but I don't dare admit the whole truth.]

Iggy, I'm pretty sure Steve still lets him post @ Climate Audit. Steve's amazingly tolerant of dissent, and Nick is not abusive. He's a died in the wool alarmist and is nicknamed 'Racehorse' after the Haynes, for his single-minded defense of the alarmist catechism. He is extremely bright, very sharp, and well behaved, so has earned a lot of respect from the skeptical crowd.

He can run his defense to absurdity, though and won't give up. He just goes silent.

All in all, one of the better of the alarmist agents. I've seen him comment @ Judy's, Andy's, and the Bish's, as well as others.

[rse]

Just discovered yet another reason Bill Kristol was so peevish about Trump. Turns out back in 2015 he set up an initiative called Project 2017 that would reform conservatism to be about the wellbeing of Main Street Americans. The Republican Party was to change accordingly and the term used was the Reformacons.

Ooops. All those plans. Popped out when I was looking for something else.

[dublindave]

You know I'm almost considering moving back to Ireland. Ireland, home of the weakest most subservient people in the history of the human race...a people who welcomed 800 years of being fucked in the ass and starved without a single rock being thrown back at their oppressors.

But this Russian capitulation on the right is almost equaling that of their mick counterparts.

The Irish had no weapons or training. What's ya'lls excuse?

[rich]

The administration blamed North Korea for the Sony hack when good information was available that it was a terminated Sony insider working with outside hackers.

[DebinNC]

Bloomberg's fake-news headline of article JMH quoted: "McConnell Backs CIA Despite Trumps Attacks Over Hacking Probe" ... All the rapid spread of disinformation requires is a memorable headline. The content may be murky but the headline, which becomes the talking point, is crystal clear.

[clarice]

™, way too complicated and subtle for me this afternoon,

[Good times, and the skies were not cloudy all day.]

Heh, Iggy, there are a number of other commenters who've been run off in the manner you describe, and they've usually been run off by commenters exposing just exactly their lack of snuffiness about math and statistics or their plethora of pestilence.

My favorite line over there, at least a decade ago, was when someone suggested that I'd wandered into the wrong classroom and my response was that I was just auditing the course.

[clarice]

JMH--I reposted that on FB--it is so good!

[The worm breathes fire and smoke, and sparks fly from its eyes.]

EB, do you suppose Trump can connect the great energy/climate delusion with the propagandizing in education and see the danger looming there, as you've so elegantly unearthed.

[sbw]

Very clear, JMH. So clear I passed it out to my editors. Thank you.

[rich]

Posted by: DebinNC | December 13, 2016 at 12:23 PM

FAKE, BUT ACCURATE.

The DNC hacks were most likely a DNC insider and once they got into the wild other people were hacked. Don't send passwords in an email and don't set your password "password".

YIKES.

Why the Dems, after years of a warm and cozy relationship with Russia would now want to blame them for everything, is puzzling?

[rse]

Uncovering was hard kim but what is actually going on is easy to describe now.

I am just taking a brief mental break from a new report that I am having a fun time blasting in the margins. My concentration is still strained and I simply started dealing with my husband's other groomsmen directly. At least there is to be a memorial service this weekend. For a while there was speculation on waiting until after the holidays. That would have been haunting.

[henry]

rse, what does Kristol know about main street?

[For shame you fraud.]

Fake dub don't know nuthin' about the Irish and resistance.

[henry]

From our Chitown lurker, FBI sued for documents showing their coordination with Trump's campaign.

Why don't they FOIA Vlad while they are chasing imaginary documewnts?

[Buckeye]

If you are against pipelines then do your part and shut off the one bringing gas to your house.

Good one Janet!

Of course with libtards, it is always do as I say, not as I do.

[For fame no shroud.]

Thanks, EB; appreciate you very much.

[Comanche Voter]

Ah Dublin Dave---talking about street smarts.

If you really are living in a trailer in a Florida trailer park (instead of your Mom's basement), let me suggest that "street smarts" can be found just a couple of blocks outside the entrance to your trailer park--you ain't got em.

As for devaluing the CIA's credibility as "not smart" on Trump's part? The various assessment and intelligence failures on the part of the CIA going over the last 30 years long ago put the agency's credibility in the dumper.

Hillary was trumpeting some nonsense during the campaign as "agreed upon by all of the nation's 17 intelligence agencies". Okay, if there actually are 17 US intelligence agencies--a proliferation that beggars imagination, it's fair to say that the CIA doesn't lead the pack.

[GUS]

Deb, you hit on something.

The bloomberg quote says TRUMP ATTACKED.

NO, Trump "responded".

I'll tell you something. Trump is NOT going to FORGET this. There is going to be payback.

[jimmyk]

"This kind of thing goes on all the time, and it drives me crazy."

Me too, but it's entirely the fault and responsibility of the media. Just as I said about Palmieri, I expect political hacks like Podesta to lie and spin. There is no excuse for media lapdogs to spread his BS around. If a conservative does it they are all over it with "fact-checking," often even when it's true. But for Dems they are, to use a recently fashionable word, stenographers.

[jimmyk]

I wonder if the Russians were behind this:

http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/265130/37-detroit-precincts-had-more-votes-voters-daniel-greenfield

[DebinNC]

Senate Foreign Relations Cmmt Republicans: Chairman-Bob Corker, James E. Risch, Marco Rubio, Ron Johnson, Jeff Flake, Cory Gardner, David Perdue, Johnny Isakson, Rand Paul, John Barraso

Just one of those Rs voting "nay" with the Dems would force an unprecedented floor fight on Tillerson's nomination. Odd to see both GA senators are on that committee.

[GUS]

WeeWeeDouchebagDavey, is not Irish at all. He's a paid troll.
Nowadays, I scroll past every post to see who wrote it.
MENTAL MARTY,
BENJACKOFF DANA
and
TEH DOUCHEBAG....are all IGNORED.

[dublindave]

"Fake dub don't know nuthin' about the Irish and resistance"

Yeah, you really got me on the whole resistance front.

The big resistance. Busted.

My only brush with the IRA came in 92 when I beat the shit out of a guy who turned out to be Martin cahill's newphew. If you lived in the inner city/rathmines or ranaleigh in 92, that's was one person you didn't want to kick the shit out of.

Anyway, I escaped being nailed to a pool table because a friend of mine was in the 'real IRA'(low-level) and asked if I could get a pass. I did, but only on condition I meet the general and his crew in a rathmines pub on a Saturday night.

Thinking you're about to be crucified sharpens the mind. I met the man a had a few beers and did some acid(true story) and he leaned over to me at about 10.30 and said "Get the fuck outa here before I change me mind"

Don't ever question my Dublin credentials again. I'm not IRA, but they did help me out of a bind.

[Dave (in MA)]

.

[lyle]

From henry's 12:01:

In the midst of a recovering economy, low unemployment and nearly nonexistent inflation, the fact remains that nearly 1 in 7 Americans still goes to bed hungry each night.

Just to remind us wingnutz that Zippy's economy is NOT the problem!!

[henry]

But Trump didn't use his time machine to fix it before his inauguration so its like totally his fault.

[James D]

GUS @ 12:43

That's standard language in any piece about Trump (or most Republicans, really). They are attacked, and when they respond, they are described as the aggressors.

Typical dishonest MSM garbage.

[GUS]

Why don't we see stories about all the DEAD CHILDREN who starved to death under OBAMA??

They're all "HUNGRY". I guess that depends on what being "HUNGRY" means. Maybe their parents need "foodstamps"???

Oh hell, we already have 50,000,000 peeps on "foodstamps". Maybe $15 @ hour to stay home would solve this "problem".

Or maybe it's the RUSSIANS.

[sbw]

FBI sued for documents showing their coordination with Trump's campaign.

I can see the headlines tomorrow, “Have you stopped beating your wife?”

FOI request denied because none exist = hiding something

FOI request produces some irrelevant papers = guilty

[henry]

sbw, exactly. some MIT grad student is behind it.

[rse]

thanks kim. Take a look at this. https://www.nrdc.org/experts/shelley-poticha/we-stand-mayors-around-world-creating-inclusive-climate-solutions

The referenced C40 report is here. http://www.c40.org/researches/deadline-2020

Because c40 is tied to the clintons, bloomberg, and the UN, that blueprint was intended to have a President hillary doing the steering.

[Buckeye]

In the midst of a recovering economy, low unemployment and nearly nonexistent inflation, the fact remains that nearly 1 in 7 Americans still goes to bed hungry each night.

I am among the 1 in 7.

Have been trying to take Anonamom's advice on avoiding the development of insulin resistance, and potential subsequent Alzheimer's to heart.

I really miss the 10:00 break for ice cream:)

[lyle]

nearly 1 in 7 Americans still goes to bed hungry each night.

Damn the visual empirical evidence of obesity found everywhere you look.

[art in newport]

Can someone explain why the Russians would prefer an unpredictable Trump to a bought-and-paid-for Clinton?

[jimmyk]

I am among the 1 in 7.

Me too, buck. Last night there was some chocolate cake singing sweetly to me to come get it, but I somehow managed to resist, and instead went and brushed my teeth so I'd avoid eating anything else. Like Odysseus chaining himself to the mast.

[Dave (in MA)]

https://soundcloud.com/radiorental1/dellsupport2
https://soundcloud.com/radiorental1/dell-support
Guy who works here likes to string along Indian "Dell support" scammers for as long as they don't catch onto what he's up to, and record the calls for fun. So far both calls have ended in expletives.

[James D]

GUS @ 12:58

We'll start seeing stories about starving children, and about the epidemic of homelessness, on January 21st.

[glasater]

Kim..

If you get bored with the inauguration 'countdown' clock' Henry's provided the Norse attack map that's pretty mesmerizing :-)

[lyle]

Apropos of nothing, I must admit that even if my viewing of Tucker Carlson on Fox--sans bowtie--taking down whiny and/or smug progtards ultimately proves ephemeral, for the time being it's been quite enjoyable.

[jimmyk]

I know someone mentioned the LA senate runoff result, but this is big:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/blogs/tim-blair/higgins-hits-dc/news-story/df8e6e99bf4b2812be67315211207f9b

I hope Clay has more impact on DC than vice-versa.

[sbw]

I somehow managed to resist, and instead went and brushed my teeth

Yeah, jimmyk, last time I tried that I sucked down half a tube of toothpaste.

[Buckeye]

jimmyk

The advice of drinking more water in the evening helps with the hunger. Unfortunately, it just exacerbates the reality of life with an enlarged prostate:)

It really isn't fair...Mrs. Buckeye is 5'7" weighs 105, Buckeyette is 5'6" weighs 100, Jr. is 6' weighs 145.

Fat boy is 5'10" and slightly north of 200. I look like I don't belong in my own family.

[lyle]

Luckily, I can pretty easily avoid sweets like cake, cookies, pie, and ice cream. Thank heavens 'cause I figure my sugar consumption from the residual in fermented grapes is plentiful enough...

[dublindave]

"Can someone explain why the Russians would prefer an unpredictable Trump to a bought-and-paid-for Clinton"

ROFLMAO....

[JM Hanes]

Can anyone who paid attention during the Bush Administration still believe the CIA is a neutral, non-political, player? George Tenant? The infamous Iran NIE? Poor Porter Goss was another one of the people I fault GWBush for abandoning in situ. Who can forget John Negroponte's machinations?

I'm not contending that the CIA is a predictable tool of the left. I'm just saying let's not forget that they are also a DC bureaucracy in fear of swamp draining. Thanks again to George Bush, they also have to defend their position in the middle of an even larger bureaucratic-intel tangle. We've got the CIA now operating within the U.S., and the F.B.I. operating internationally..... All currently led by a Bigly Doofus.

To get an idea of the scope of the mess, just take a good look at the whole United States Intelligence Community concept, starting with the members & their "parent agencies." Or if you like pretty graphics, there's this visualization of Intel Community funding:

It's going to take one hell of a BigFoot DNI to sort these folks out. Make Intel Briefings Great Again!

[Buckeye]

Thank heavens 'cause I figure my sugar consumption from the residual in fermented grapes is plentiful enough...

I've cut back on that too, which probably explains my surly mood:)

[lyle]

Bummer, Buckeye! ;)

[JM Hanes]

Thanks so much for the encouraging words!

DebinNC's comment @ 12:23 PM is also right on target:

"All the rapid spread of disinformation requires is a memorable headline. The content may be murky but the headline, which becomes the talking point, is crystal clear."

It sets/cements the narrative, while simultaneously giving the author his plausible deniability (Don't blame me -- I didn't write the headline!).

[henry]

well look at this. Mr CIA "the Russians did it" is a friend of Egg McMuffin.

This is my shocked face.

[lyle]

Insty links this:

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2016/12/democrats-have-mixed-feelings-on-2020-field.html

“Joe Biden leads the way for Democrats with 31% to 24% for Bernie Sanders, and 16% for Elizabeth Warren. They’re the only folks we tested with meaningful support for the nomination at this point.”

Keep pining for old, white people, doucheydavey.

[Captain Hate]

Tammy Bruce: Romney may have been a good candidate for State but it was obvious he didn't like Trump and, at his age, that was unlikely to change. Now having been considered for the job, at least superficially, he is less well positioned to take shots at Trump in the future.

[clarice]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/dissonance-by-the-sea-1481653527

[Buckeye]

Now having been considered for the job, at least superficially, he is less well positioned to take shots at Trump in the future.

Trump has been investing heavily in neutralizing his detractors, at least to the degree possible.

[Captain Hate]

Tammy will be on Tucker's show either tonight or tomorrow.

Thanks to all for the tooth crown feedback on the dead thread.

With my new diet, after dinner snacks have gone bye bye. Surprisingly I don't feel hungry when I go to bed.

[Buckeye]

Bummer, Buckeye! ;)

Of course if I ever have a chance to visit your cellar in SV, I will kick that bad habit to the curb:)

[lyle]

http://www.rollcall.com/news/gonzales/tomi-lahren-get-elected-congress

I think it's not unfair of me to presume Beasts is, unlike me until this minute, already familiar with this quite fetching young rising conservative star... ;)

Note to progtards: this is who is on the bench of your opponents. Your bench reeks of Ben-gay and Geritol. But do keep nominating them. Please.

[lyle]

Of course if I ever have a chance to visit your cellar in SV, I will kick that bad habit to the curb:)

In which I will gleefully be your enabler...

[Captain Hate]

Tammy Bruce: how does releasing raw information from the donks help Trump if they're such patriots. Whoever did the hacking was doing what the MFM should do. Bush's phone was hacked and all you found out from that was that he was a painter.

[lyle]

This brought that same smirk to my face. Again.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/12/trump-may-have-america-but-the-city-is-still-ours.html

The city was always an asylum. On television on Election Night, the world they used was bubble. But what a bubble.

New Yorkers woke up on November 8 in what seems now like a fairy-tale fog, convinced, as ever, that the future belonged to us. By midnight, the world looked very different, the country very far away (and the future, too). Eighty percent of us had voted against the man who won, and 80 percent, it seemed, were already hatching plans to leave — for Canada or Berlin or anywhere else we imagined we could live safely among the like-minded. That was when the text messages began coming in from old friends in Wisconsin and Texas and North Carolina and Missouri. They were watching the same returns we were, in the same apocalyptic panic, and all making desperate plans to come to New York. For them, the city was still the same fairy tale.

And for us, those 80 percent in denial and despair, the city itself was a consolation. The human traffic on the streets that next morning was funereal, but it did proceed, commuters stuffed shoulder-­to-shoulder on subway cars, crying. More amazing, here: They were looking each other in the eye as they bawled. There were hugs among strangers, and many more bleary-eyed nods, on streets that seemed dusted with ash. It was a bubble, of course, but after the election, the city unbubbled us too — popped us out of our blister packs of despair.

What utter bathos. And I love every word of it.

[lyle]

http://nypost.com/2016/12/11/libraries-are-suddenly-a-hotbed-of-political-activism/

Paging Porch to the white courtesy phone. Paging Porchlight to the white courtesy phone. ;)

[JimNorCal]

Tech details on DNC penetration

https://www.crowdstrike.com/blog/bears-midst-intrusion-democratic-national-committee/

[lyle]

http://pointsandfigures.com/2016/12/12/before-you-get-too-cheery-about-the-trump-rally/

[Cecil Turner]

Not sure where I got this, might've been here, but Charles Blow is having an aneurysm:

In a way, Trump seems to be trying to destroy these agencies from the inside out, the way a worm slowly devours an apple.

He sure does have a talent for annoying the right people, doesn't he? A veritable smorgasbord of schadenfreude.

[Stephanie despicable me]

Puppy update:

He's now in full blown puppy stage full of piss and vinegar. He really needs siblings for socialization, but he's doing OK with mom as the handy play toy. Chew her leg, chew her tail, chew her mustache...oh wait that tastes yummy!!, and he's transitioning to puppy chow, now, too.

This afternoon, he decided that the tree skirt under the tree would make a good tug of war toy. He didn't get anywhere with it, but he's now black and white and gold... glitter being what it is, I fully expect that to still be in his fur come late January. :/

[Buckeye]

And for us, those 80 percent in denial and despair, the city itself was a consolation.

One of my libtard cousins posted a piece on FB the morning of the 9th.

Theme was about despair knocking on her door, and how she was going to do everything in her power to not let it in. Was moving, if you are in to that kind of thing.

She is quite a bit younger than me, and I had little chance to get to know her very well. Lives in Atlanta now and is CEO of a tech company, obviously accomplished.

Never knew she was such a talented writer:)

[clarice]

lyle, it would take a heart of stone not to laugh at that article on NYC.
Steph--pictures!

[Buckeye]

He sure does have a talent for annoying the right people, doesn't he? A veritable smorgasbord of schadenfreude.

Yes he does, hope he has same talent for running things.

So far, much better than the alternative and the last 8 years.

[lyle]

In a way, Trump seems to be trying to destroy these agencies from the inside out, the way a worm slowly devours an apple.

Interesting. I see "those agencies" destroying the country the way an ichneumon wasp deposits its ova inside of the host, while the host is still alive and well, you can figure out the rest...

Alert! Do not click on this link if you're squeamish!

http://cirrusimage.com/wp/hymenoptera-megarhyssa/

[buccaneer morgan]

I was assuming the various service divisiom as well geospatial, but that's way short of seventeen. Yes sulick and kappes stuck a shiv in porter, even Joe Rodriguez didn't call attention but his ghost was bill _____, the fmr agency spokesmen.

[buccaneer morgan]

Who was a witness against Libby.

[lyle]

I agree, clarice: pictures, Steph!

[buccaneer morgan]

Definitely steph

[Captain Hate]

He really needs siblings for socialization

When I picked up Teddy after Thanksgiving, I spent some time talking was the breeder on this and that. I knew from Zuckerberg that they'd recently had an only pup litter; what I hadn't known is that Mojo Rising was Teddy's nephew. She said that she will keep Mojo for the reason stated above, that he just won't have the socialization needed to place him with a prospective owner

[Beasts of England]

It includes Coast Guard Intelligence, Marine Intelligence, National Geospatial, NRO, and the like. Sixteen agencies and the ODNI.

[lyle]

BTW, in case you didn't know it, the Ichneumon wasp was the inspiration of the movie, Alien.

[JM Hanes]

Comanche Voter:

"Hillary was trumpeting some nonsense during the campaign as agreed upon by all of the nation's 17 intelligence agencies"

I didn't know what that meant either, till this afternoon, when I looked up the National Intel Community. Now I just wonder how long it took Camp Podesta to come up with that construction, so they wouldn't have to cite some random guy in the ODNI (from which Clapper oversees the 16 agency community, as detailed above). Are we really supposed to believe that the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office and the Coast Guard weighed in on the matter?

[lyle]

http://thefederalist.com/2016/12/13/how-to-repeal-obamacare-repeal-obamacare/

After their big election victory there is nothing to stop Republicans from dismantling Obamacare. So naturally they're figuring out how to blow it.

Yep. That's the GOPe we all know and love despise.

[Captain Hate]

Note to progtards: this is who is on the bench of your opponents. Your bench reeks of Ben-gay and Geritol.

Cat piss and mildew too.