Tag: Julian Assange

“Mr. Trump is a racist, a con-man and a cheat”

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MICHAEL COHEN:

“Mr. Trump is a racist, a con-man and a cheat”

By D. S. Mitchell

It Was Jaw Dropping

Michael Cohen had his time in front of the American people today and it was jaw dropping. He came to Capital Hill to testify before the House Oversight Committee chaired by the Honorable Elijah Cummings. Cohen started his testimony with the provocative statement, “Mr. Trump is a racist, a con-man, and a cheat”. He went on to implicate President Donald Trump in bank fraud, election fraud, insurance fraud, tax evasion, lying, suborning perjury and more. I could hardly tear myself away from the testimony to grab a fresh cup of coffee. Cohen was captivating. For close to seven hours Mr. Cohen gave testimony that lit the hair of viewers on fire. At the end of his testimony I finally closed my mouth and uttered a hushed, “Wow”.

A Web of Lies

There were moments when I truly empathized with Mr. Cohen. He said, he like most of us, is complex. Cohen admitted he was mesmerized by the heady world of Donald Trump. He was quickly swept into the Trump web of lies and misdeeds. A world where lies are twisted and manipulated for Trump’s advantage. A world where Trump uses code to give instructions. I could see it happening. The normalizing of criminal activity, they were all wearing suits and ties. Right? Nothing they were doing was that bad, was it? Now everything looks different. Now he realizes he was under the spell of Mr. Trump and he did a variety of illegal things that benefited only Mr. Trump. In the end the normalizing of those white-collar crimes and blind loyalty to a criminal kingpin have taken Michael Cohen to a guilty plea and a three-year sentence in federal prison.

Racketeering and Corruption

I have watched the GOP sink into a swamp of corruption over the last several years. Michael Cohen accused the Republican members of the committee of having fallen into the Trump quagmire. And it does seem as if at least two of Trump’s attack dogs in Congress, Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan seem to have become entangled in the Trump web of racketeering and corruption.

White Knuckled Attacks

Otherwise, why all the red-faced screaming and white knuckled paper waving attacks against Mr. Cohen personally? It looked bad. The Republicans on the Oversight Committee did themselves no favors by their ugly display today. Despite the outrage and the effort to stop the hearing with objection after objection, Chairman Cummings steered the hearing to a mind-blowing conclusion.  At least two news commentators took noted that no congressman defended Trump, or spoke to his sterling character.

On Speaker Phone

Do I think Cohen would have had his conversion if the FBI had not raided his offices and home and seized incriminating evidence?  It wasn’t until Jesus was passed in front of his face that Cohen had his Damascus moment. My ears perked up as Michael Cohen described a call that Trump received from Roger Stone. Cohen’s disclosure described Roger Stone, on speaker phone with Trump. During the conversation Stone allegedly told Donald Trump that Wikileaks was about to release an email dump. Cohen’s testimony brings us closer to evidence that Donald Trump was aware of the upcoming email release of stolen DNC emails. Is it proof that Donald Trump was in co-ordination with their release. No, but it smells really bad for Stone and Trump.

Back In Time

After hearing the Michael Cohen testimony tying Trump and Stone to Wikileaks prior to the email release I thought www.calamitypolitics.com should dig around the YouTube treasure chest and find some of those old Roger Stone tapes from InfoWars say, and show them again. The following is actually from a CNN segment related to Stone bragging about his insider information and his “dinner with Assange”. I’m sure it will bring back memories.  Please note that Wikileaks, Julian Assange and Roger Stone have issued precisely worded denials of Mr. Cohen’s depiction of events.

 

The Long, Hard Fall Of Julian Assange

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The Long, Hard Fall of Julian Assange

by T.K. McNeil

 

Julian Assange Has Been Living At The Ecuadorian Embassy In London

Rogue Hacker Julian Assange Has Been Living At The Ecuadorian Embassy in London

It Is All In The Perspective

The difference between a “terrorist” and a “freedom-fighter” is essentially one of goals. One area where terms make a difference is the world of hacking. Used freely, and inclusively by the mainstream news media, “hacker” is little more than a general descriptor. All it really means, is someone who uses non-standard means to enhance their experience with technology.

They Wear Hats

If you have ever used a video-game cheat code or made non-factory improvements to your computer, congratulations, you are a hacker. The hacker world is diverse. The simplest distinction is between so-called “Black Hat” and “White Hat” hackers. Also known as “the criminal minority and the rest of us.” Though just as very few in the hacker community are nefarious, shadowy criminal types, equally few are virtuous, “White Hat” “Hacktivists.”

I Said It Was All Relative

Julian Assange Computer Programmer, Hacker, Activist and Wikileaks Founder

Computer Programmer, Hacker, & Founder of Wikileaks

As with the rest of humanity most are somewhere in-between. For most, hacking is surfing. Experimenting and testing to see what can be done with no particular goal in mind. Julian Assange is a “White Hat”. At least until recently. “Recently” being 2016 but like I said, everything is relative. Rather than being “done” as many have suggested Julian Assange and his notorious info-dumps are back in the news and not in a way many could have imagined.

Gray Hat

Assange is a lightning rod for controversy. Can you truly be controversial and popular?  Assange has never achieved popularity, but he has reached world-wide fame. I’d wager that even the most news ignorant of the populace have at least heard his name. His closest associates have said he is barely tolerable, and they continue to engage with him only because they believe in the importance of the work. Bringing truth to the world and bringing light to the dark places. Apparently forgetting that Lucifer was the bearer of light before the Fall.

Before The Fall

Julian Assange Was Accused Of Espionage And Theft In His Native Australia

Personal failings aside, Julian Assange was, and likely still is, a brilliant hacker. One of the best. This is after-all, the guy who figured out how to use and decode government data wires while still in his teens. He was however, “ratted out” and was charged with espionage (originally treason) and was tried in 1996 in a Melbourne, Australia.

Intellectual Inquisitiveness

He was convicted of 24 counts of “hacking” for crimes dating back nearly a decade. He received  leniency. The judge speaking to the matter said Assange’s “intellectual inquisitiveness” was extremely dangerous, however he “did not seek personal gain” and that was given weight. Assange was unique. He was a kid who had attended 37 different schools, lived in a cult with his restless mother and faced daily unpredictable circumstances growing up. But by the age of 15 he was sophisticated and expert enough to attack military computers, at a time before most Americans didn’t even have a personal computer.

Dr. Alina Polyakova Believes The Russian Government Is In Fact Using Wikileaks

Dr. Alina Polyakova

Motive

Another thing that was never at question was Julian Assange’s motives. The biography website Biography.com lists him as a “Computer Programmer, Hacker and Activist”. This was not to last long however, his uncompromising drive and near-pathological hatred of government (nearly being charged with treason will do that), shaded that white hat a distinctive shade of gray. Alina Polyakova, Director of the Eurasia Center volunteered this, “In his attempt to bring ‘transparency’, he ends up siding with the very regimes that deny transparency and human rights. That’s the irony of my enemy’s enemy is my friend.”

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Trust In Government In Trump’s America

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Trust in Government in Trump’s America 

Just My Opinion: By Brett Kondratiew

From The Outside Looking In

At the outset, I am not an American, instead I live in Australia but I have an interest in American Politics. Pretty much because its brutality is unlike anything I have ever seen. However under Donald Trump, it has reached unprecedented ferocity. Is trust in government a victim of Trump intention and rhetoric? Or, a reaction to five decades of government disregard for a growing disgruntled and distrustful electorate?

Controversy And Division

To witness a presidential candidate, openly condone the physical and often violent behavior by his supporters, certainly piqued my interest. Yes, the battlegrounds of immigration and race will always cause controversy and division but when used as an explicit, electoral “plan of attack”, was extraordinary to watch. So here we sit, some two years into the Trump Administration and the question is, “Has Trump’s America altered our trust in government”?

Statistics May Have The Answer

As an observer I would say yes, America has lost faith and trust in her government. Statisticians examining and correlating their numbers all have reached a somewhat different conclusion. Fewer than three-in-ten Americans express faith that their government will do the “right thing.” This distrust in government has been consistent in survey after survey since 2007. So, increased distrust in government is not just a phenomenon of Trump. Perhaps Trump’s election was more about the lack of trust in government than we will ever understand.

How Low Can We Go

Confidence and trust in Trump, the man, is also staggeringly low. Eugene Scott, a writer for The Fix and the Washington Post, presents the following figures.  In Sept 2018, only 36% of people approved of Trump’s job performance. When questioned further, less than 30% believed that Trump would do the “right thing”.  This is the lowest figure seen over the earlier 10 months. Factor in the following stats; more than 50% of men believe that the media have more credibility than the government. It is significant that only 8% of African-Americans  trust Trump. His trust numbers among women are dropping so fast it is hard to get an exact number. Taking all groups together the average of expressed trust in government is at an all time low of 19%.

Is Trust in Trump a Ship that has already sailed?

I like to have a bet on horses but there is no way that I would put any of my hard-earned on someone with so little support. When I decided to write this editorial, I was given a copy of Bob Woodward’s new book “Fear- Trump in the White House.” I did not expect that so early into the read, I would find a man so ill-informed and totally unsuitable to be the “world’s most powerful individual”. Bob Woodward is a highly respected journalist and his book is based on many hours of interviews with multiple firsthand sources. The material presented doesn’t surprise me. Nor, does it surprise me that Trump has refused to comment, other than to call Woodward a “liar” and his book a pack of “lies.”

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“Follow The Trail Of Russian Bodies”

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Follow The Trail Of Russian Bodies

D.S. Mitchell

Calamity Politics is a progressive political blog that attempts everyday to provide interesting and topical articles, focused primarily on the U.S. national political scene.  Topics of analysis and commentary are determined by me.  Sometimes I discuss the headlines of the day, sometimes I veer off and talk about things that make me smile and others that make me mad. Today, I am going to reach back in to recent history.  The news of the day, again involves the Russians and possible disclosure by President Trump of highly classified information.  So, I thought it might be good to have a refresher course on Russia’s war against our democratic institutions.  Sources for this article are Del Quentin Wilker, the LA Times, Melissa Ryan Extra Newsfeed, and AP correspondents, Deb Reichmann and Eileen Sullivan, and finally CtrlAltRightDelete.

On March 30, 2017 Clint Watts, terrorism and espionage expert, Robert A. Fox Fellow, Program on the Middle East and Senior Fellow, Program on National Security, appeared before the Senate Intel Committee to discuss the Russian intervention in the 2016 presidential election.  Watts gave the committee and the American public a history lesson into the activities of the Russians, tracing the Kremlin’s efforts to influence our elections as a decades long effort using misinformation to undermine our democracy.

Wilker in his LA Times article declared, “Watts provided a road map to better understand” the shady practices by Moscow. To understand the activities, he urged the Senate and the U.S. government to “follow the money” to figure out “how misinformation websites and social media outlets are being funded.”

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Let’s Talk About Russia

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Let’s Talk About Russia

By D. S. Mitchell

Chores Done

I’ve walked the dog, made the coffee, run the vacuum, and now I’m ready to sit down and pass on the latest political gossips from the shadowy world of Russian hackers and the Donald Trump 2016 Presidential election campaign. The U.S. political discussion on television, and print media has ramped up the conspiracy talk, recently. It’s like James Bond. Wow, who would have guessed, that American politics could be so exciting.

D.C. And Beyond

Lily and I, are mesmerized.  Explosive rumors and innuendos have filled the newspapers and cable news networks. Actually, Lily is not that interested in the DC uproar. She thinks of walks, treats and visiting her neighborhood friends. I however, can’t get enough of the political hysteria. Sometimes the fireworks are in D.C. sometimes in Mar-a-Lago. It just depends where our golf course hopping president wants to park his golf cart this week.  But, wherever this clown goes he does attract a crowd of reporters and spectators.

Political Persecution

Nigel Farage is a vocal supporter of Trump. He visited the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, on Thursday.  Everyone is asking, why would he be at the embassy? As most everyone on the planet knows, the embassy gave Julian Assange political asylum, in 2012 and he is still there.  The founder and editor of WikiLeaks, has claimed political persecution. Either Farage was visiting Assange or he plans a vacation to Ecuador.

Kremlin Ties

Putin used WikiLeaks to publish stolen documents hacked from Western individuals and governments for years.  It was WikiLeaks that orchestrated the dissemination of emails stolen by Russian hackers during the 2016 presidential campaign  Clinton was a known enemy to Putin’s agenda. Donald Trump was the Russian favorite in the 2016 election, and Putin used Wikileaks to damage the reputation of Hillary Clinton.

Today’s Visit

Assange has just released damaging CIA documents compromising spying techniques and diminishing the United States standing on the world stage. Forage was in the Embassy for about 40 minutes. As Farage exited the building he was met by a gaggle of reporters. The question on everyone’s mind was why was he at the embassy? When he was asked if he had visited Assange, Farage replied, “I never discuss where I go, or who I see.”

As far as I’m concerned his answer  pretty much tells us he was there to see Assange.  It also tells us, that Trump, knew about the visit and will soon know about the details of the visit.

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