Dangerous Memes By Walrus.

The "Birther" meme attached to President Obama was a cleverly crafted and slimy attempt to derail his Presidential campaign. While it developed a life of its own after his inauguration it never was going to be a call to action by patriots. The Trump - Russia meme in my opinion is a much more serious information operation because it is designed to question the legitimacy of a President Trump defence and foreign policy actions.

To put that another way, this IO is not political point scoring, its attempting to influence U.S. foreign and defence policy in a very direct way - precluding a whole raft of policy options related to normalizing relations with Russia, winding back NATO expansion and other areas that I don't even know about. I don't know if this is against the law or not.

CNN  has just led with a story that the intelligence community presented Trump with a dossier alleging five years work by the Russian Government to both compromise Trump and promote his presidential prospects and allege collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian Government. 

"....(CNN)Classified documents presented last week to President Obama and President-elect Trump included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump, multiple US officials with direct knowledge of the briefings tell CNN.

The allegations were presented in a two-page synopsis that was appended to a report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. The allegations came, in part, from memos compiled by a former British intelligence operative, whose past work US intelligence officials consider credible. The FBI is investigating the credibility and accuracy of these allegations, which are based primarily on information from Russian sources, but has not confirmed many essential details in the memos about Mr. Trump...."

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/10/politics/donald-trump-intelligence-report-russia/index.html

 

Buzzfeed obligingly then leaks all 35 pages of the alleged "Memos" on which the summary is allegedly based, that go into scatalogical detail about Trump in Russia.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/kenbensinger/these-reports-allege-trump-has-deep-ties-to-russia?utm_term=.pkOOrazq7#.oc4JGA7v2

 

Folks, to me, it doesn't seem to me that American politics can get more surreal. I don't think I've seen more flaky conglomerations passing as intelligence summaries, ever..... and CNN apparently bought it,..... and the liberal media follow suit. Trump wanted to defile the bed that President Obama slept in at a hotel in Moscow, so he arranged a sex party???

The Alt right are now digging and it seems that at least the plot for that particular memo ( the sex party one) was fed by a prankster to one DNC operative Wilson, who appears to have run with it. CNN,  Fake News all of the time. 

I'm half a world away in opposite time zones, please tell us what your morning brings... It seems to me that a "Trump the Traitor" meme is a very dangerous creation.

Comments

[Fred]

Walrus,

"memos compiled by a former British intelligence operative..."

Is his code name "slime ball"? We know just how good the info was from "curveball" was in the last run up to war.....

[LeeG]

Dang, and Trump was doing such a good job dignifying the role of president elect with his early am tweets.

[turcopolier]

Stu Wood

If Trump's business is heavily funded from Russia you have a point, IF ... Where is the proof? Have you looked at his financial statement filed with the FEC? As for the ridiculous fabrication about his supposedly letting whores piss in Obama's hotel bed, are you seriously telling us you believe that nonsense? pl

[Eric Newhill]

Peter,
Right. We should apply Occam's Razor and realize that these people running with the story are very stupid and incompetent.

But, boy, it sure would have been a savvy sting from Team Trump to release the story for the ultimate purpose of totally discrediting the MSM and the lunatic McCain.

There are ways that a public figure can still initiate a libel suit. I hope Trump goes for it and ends up owning Buzzfeed and CNN.

[Fred]

Tyler,

Also - nobody is talking about Obama's farewell address. Talk about irrelevant.

[Vic]

"Past work by this operative was considered by US intelligence to be credible....". If true, this alone should generate a congressional investigation into CIA sourcing standards. It would also not hurt for congress to propose CIA reforms and reorganization suggestions to the new administration.

This will probably be opposed by the "old boys club" of former CIA agents and analysts who are now in government, academia, think tanks, and news organizations. Their push back will be quick and organized.

Vic

[Eric Newhill]

Bobo,
In my more paranoid moments I worry about Trump experiencing airplane crashes, lone gunmen, terrorist attacks, plutonium in the salt shaker......

[Stu Wood]

All I read was sexual compromise so I assumed it was heterosexual sex which is probably something he would not care if exposed.

[Babak Makkinejad]

Western politician: "I decide who is a radical Muslim."

[kooshy]

..............and by CNN' wolf B. just the night before the new secretary of state' ( a putin' agent) confirmation hearing .

[Ishmael Zechariah]

Col. Lang, SST;
A couple of non-rhetorical questions:
1-Is there any background investigation of presidential candidates prior to the election? If so, who does this? IMO, since the president-elect automatically gets the highest security clearance possible(?), someone must have done due diligence(?).
2-Can Mr. Trump & Co. take private legal action against the publication of such unverified, bizarre, claims, or are they, now, public personas who can be slandered w/ impunity?

Coming after Fred's Paris story, this is a bummer. What is going on?
Ishmael Zechariah

[Lars]

It appears that our lives are now part of a TV reality show. Of course, realism left the stage a long time ago. At some point a majority of Americans will have to decide whether they want solid governing, or just continuous entertainment. Right now it seems the latter is on the menu.

Just remember: We have the best government money can buy.

[eakens]

If the Russians owned him because they were the lender of last resort in 2008 when the liquidity dried up, then by 2013-2014 he would have refinanced whatever debt they gave him, at lower rates, and he would no longer be beholden to him.

The guy has said he wants to have a normal relationship with Russia, and defeat ISIS, and all of a sudden he's a Manchurian candidate. I hope the first thing he does is start working up to break the corporate media, because despite their waning influence, they have managed to partially corrupt a whole generation of people's minds.

[Frank]

So some prankster from 4chan feeds a ridiculously fake story to a DNC operative, who foolishly buys it then forwards it on to the CIA, who foolishly puts it in their official intelligence report. They then conclude that Russia plans to blackmail Trump, with this completely made up story...

Just let all that sink in

[kooshy]

This tweet by DT says it all

"Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
I win an election easily, a great "movement" is verified, and crooked opponents try to belittle our victory with FAKE NEWS. A sorry state!"

[JohnH]

To listen to media reports, Trump is the new Saddam Hussein. Only question is, how will the war be prosecuted?

[Ghostship]

From what I understand of British intelligence, counter-intelligence is handled by MI5 and intelligence is handled by MI6 and they each had their own turf where the other was not welcome except when it comes to terrorism. So how would a UK domestic operator have contacts in Russia?

[turcopolier]

IZ

The president holds his position by constitutional election. His/her right to hold office is derived from election in the electoral college. There is no authority higher than the president's. Who would you want to tell us who can be president, the FBI? The president has no security clearance. he is the supreme classifying authority. Members of Congress and federal judges including SCOTUS have no security clearances. They have access because of their constitutional office. I suppose the president could sue. pl

[HawkOfMay]

My first thought is "live by the sword, die by the sword". President Elect Trump jumped on the birther band wagon early and for political reasons. This had its own corrosive effect on our democracy. The birther conspiracy was propaganda designed to rile the masses. I now I'm speaking to choir here but in this day and age we all need to be news analysts and very skeptical of what we see and read.

My own opinion about what is going in is that we are dealing with a combination of reality ( Trump's dealings with Russia are deeper than he lets on), propaganda, and theater. One theory I've come across is that all these rumors about President Elect Trump are false but they actually do come from Russian sources. Why? Because what better way to damage American democracy.

President Elect Trump is not dealing with the situation very well either. Twitter is a very imprecise method of communication and allows a great deal of leeway in how his comments are interpreted. Trump defending himself with a 'Because Russia said so' is an incredibly weak defense. A much stronger defense would be to release his financial records and his tax returns.

[turcopolier]

HawkoMay

What was revealed in the WikiLeaks e-mails was the shoddy treatment given to sanders. Yes, that damaged American democracy but no one has challenged the truth pf this ugliness. pl

[turcopolier]

Stu Wood

Ah, I see. You are either a childish troll spreading unsourced and unvetted rumor or a malicious political operative. pl

[Frank]

Twitter is a perfect way to go around the mainstream media, which has proven they will manipulate and twist any story or even create their own to damage Trump anyway.

How else do you suggest he communicate directly with the American people without going through a verifiably compromised media complex?

[Ishmael Zechariah]

Colonel,
Thank you. I now understand that "access through constitutional office" is the US law.
I was more thinking along the lines that the DNC or RNC would hire a competent private outfit to do some background checks and then inform a candidate that easily reachable skeletons exist in his/her closet. Or they might go public w/ the results, or inform the law... Would this constitute blackmail?

The current smear campaign is very strange. They had this "information" beforehand.

Ishmael Zechariah

[Freudenschade]

Porkchop,

Before ascribing such a noble hacker ethic to 4chan, it pays to look into its history. Do they make stuff up? Absolutely. All around the points of the compass. I'm still waiting to find out for which celebrity nude image leak the myriad users of 4chan were responsible and which were just a hoax or false claim. I'd take any 4chan stories with a dairy farm sized salt lick.

[BuddhistHarmony]

It's well-known that Trump in his biographies & many news articles that Trump is a germaphobe & clean freak who avoids shaking hands, pressing elevator buttons with his hands & avoiding using public restroooms
so the claim that he would be even in the same room as 2 strangers peeing in his hotel bedroom is likely a hoax

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/07/10/15-Facts-You-Didn-t-Know-About-Donald-Trump
&
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/10/the-7-oddest-things-donald-trump-thinks-214354

Also, Colonel Lang, is this true & debunks it? "The Trump-Russia intel document headers are “CONFIDENTIAL / SENSITIVE SOURCE” and the source is allegedly ex-MI6.

The US and UK don’t use that header in ANY sensitive material."