{"id":87,"date":"2017-03-08T14:55:18","date_gmt":"2017-03-08T14:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=87"},"modified":"2017-03-14T16:30:16","modified_gmt":"2017-03-14T16:30:16","slug":"shiny-balls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2017\/03\/08\/shiny-balls\/","title":{"rendered":"Shiny Balls (distractions from Russia and Trump)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shiny Balls<\/p>\n

There is no direct evidence (yet) that the Trump Campaign cooperated with Russian intelligence in the disinformation campaign against the Clinton campaign in the 2016 election. Slowly, some circumstantial evidence is coming to light. Meetings between various Trump associates and Russians raise questions about the nature of those contacts: the fact that those same associates lied about those meetings makes them even more suspect.<\/p>\n

The leaked \u201cTrump Dossier\u201d written by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele (what a \u201c007\u201d sounding name!) states that the Trump campaign actively coordinated with Russian intelligence using Carter Page as the \u201cgo-between\u201d. While a great deal of that dossier is still unverified, many of its statements are now checking out as factual. <\/p>\n

There are currently at least three active investigations of the Trump\/Russia connections. The House and Senate Intelligence committees are both committed to investigations and hearings. Currently, neither committee has plans to call Christopher Steele to testify. And, while it hasn\u2019t been directly acknowledged, it is assumed (ass-u-me, I know) that the FBI is conducting its own investigation as well. Ultimately, a special counsel may be appointed by the Justice Department to oversee another investigation.<\/p>\n

Last Tuesday, though it seems like months ago, President Trump gave a \u201cstate of the union\u201d style address to a joint session of Congress. Like it or not, it was the most \u201cPresidential\u201d thing he has done. The Trump White House naturally hoped that the speech would drive the newscycle for a few days.<\/p>\n

Last Wednesday it was revealed the Attorney General Jeff Sessions did not testify factually to the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearings. Sessions forgot about two meetings with the Russian Ambassador, the second one held in his office the day after the Obama Administration announced that they were investigating Russian involvement in the US election. Sessions was forced into recusing himself from involvement and control of the Justice Department\u2019s investigations into the Trump\/Russia connection.<\/p>\n

On the same day, it was revealed that Jared Kushner met with the Russian Ambassador during December, along with resigned National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. Carter Page revealed that he too met with the Russian Ambassador, and made several trips to Russia (where he had business ties with Gazprom).<\/p>\n

CNN: Who is Carter Page<\/a><\/p>\n

Instead of the newscycle being driven by the speech, the momentum was rolling towards more investigation into Trump and Russia.<\/p>\n

Ask any magician: the essence of any good magic trick is distraction. While you watch the beautiful girl, the flaming hat, or the shiny balls; the magician performs his trick. You are amazed!!!<\/p>\n

On Friday, Trump left Washington (again) to go to Florida. Saturday morning the first of the \u201cshiny balls\u201d was dropped, as Trump, apparently quoting a Breibart article, claimed that President Obama had Trump Tower wiretapped. Trump then \u201cdoubled down\u201d on the tweet, calling for a Congressional investigation of Obama\u2019s alleged actions.<\/p>\n

This tweet took over the weekend news cycle. On Monday, the Trump administration cautiously released the next version of the immigration (Muslim) ban, then on Tuesday dropped their version of the new health act. Meanwhile, Julian Assange at Wikileaks dumped a huge load of supposedly CIA information, including allegations that the CIA has worked to hack household electronics for eavesdropping.<\/p>\n

NYT: Wikileaks Releases Trove of Alleged CIA Hacking Documents<\/a><\/p>\n

The Wikileaks dump looks like another \u201cshiny ball.\u201d Its content is designed to \u201cfire-up\u201d both extremes of American political thought, playing into both the fears of the Breibart \u201cblack helicopters\u201d groups, and the far-left. <\/p>\n

Oh, and we can’t forget the tweet about Obama releasing all of those terrorists who went back onto the “battlefield” (except most of those were released by George W Bush, and of those most who returned to “combat” were released by Bush as well).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only Wednesday. Don\u2019t be distracted by the \u201cshiny balls.\u201d It will take some time, but step by step the nature of the Trump\/Russian relationship will be revealed. How far up the Trump organization it may go, we don\u2019t know yet. But in this age of absolute information (alternative or not) we will ultimately find out whether a candidate for President of the United States joined with a rival nation to take over our country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shiny Balls There is no direct evidence (yet) that the Trump Campaign cooperated with Russian intelligence in the disinformation campaign against the Clinton campaign in the 2016 election. Slowly, some circumstantial evidence is coming to light. Meetings between various Trump associates and Russians raise questions about the nature of those contacts: the fact that those … Continue reading “Shiny Balls (distractions from Russia and Trump)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nShiny Balls (distractions from Russia and Trump) : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2017\/03\/08\/shiny-balls\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shiny Balls (distractions from Russia and Trump) : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Shiny Balls There is no direct evidence (yet) that the Trump Campaign cooperated with Russian intelligence in the disinformation campaign against the Clinton campaign in the 2016 election. 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