Russia seems to be at the top of the news right now, and we all need to take a step back and put this into its proper perspective.

(1) I have no doubt that Russia was behind many of the memes and other propaganda generated during our election.  But so what?  Nations have been using propaganda to influence other nations for centuries.  It was the American People who were stupid enough to form their opinions from memes and 140-letter tweets rather than reading actual, factual news reports that followed proper journalistic techniques.

(2) I have very little doubt that Russia was behind the hacks of the DNC and the subsequent release of the emails via Wiki-leaks. Breaking into computers systems here in the U.S. is a crime, and such influencing could be considered an Act of War.  But, again, so what?   We aren’t going to declare war on Russia because of this. Obama imposed some mild sanctions, and that is really the end of it.  They will try again, as will many other people, and we will deal with it each time. The bottom line is that we just need to work harder to secure our networks.

(3) Michael Flynn talked to Russia about Obama’s sanctions on the same day that they were imposed. This does indeed seem to be a violation of the Logan Act.  But, the Logan Act was passed to prevent private citizens from interfering with the Federal Government to further their own interests. But this was not the case here. Flynn had already been selected as Trump’s National Security Adviser, and Trump had already run the election. Trump was due to take office in less than a month. Flynn’s actions arguably diffused a situation which could have escalated and presented Trump with a serious and immediate crisis on his first day in office.  But Flynn was WRONG to have lied about the meeting, and he has paid the price.  No one has ever been prosecuted under the Logan Act, and Flynn’s actions do not warrant him being the first.

(4) Trump and many of his staff are wealthy businessmen with multi-national business interests.  Russia is the biggest country in the world, and China is the most populous.  Of course they will have business interests there.  Of course they will know people in those countries and will have contact with them.  But Trump and his associates need to stop lying about the contacts.  That only adds fuel to the fire.  Just admit that the contacts happened.  If you were not breaking the law, it’s no big deal.

(4) During the transition, Trump and his associates were in contact with many foreigners and foreign governments in preparation for his taking office. One of the reasons there is a delay between the time of the election and the time the President takes office is to allow him to get properly prepared to fulfill the duties of that office, and that includes getting to know people he will be dealing with as well as getting up to speed on all of the issues and security concerns.  The President needs to be fully up to speed on DAY ONE, and this would not be possible if advanced preparations were not allowed.

(6) The Emoluments Clause was intended to prevent foreign governments  from making gifts (bribes) to government officials to curry favor. It was not intended to include regular business income.  Trump and associates are multi-national business people who routinely do business in foreign countries.  This is no different than the Bill Clinton giving speeches in Russia or soliciting funds for the Clinton Campaign.  Either take issue with BOTH the Clintons AND Trump, or shut the hell up!  Besides, Trump makes over $150 million dollars each year.  Do you really think he can be influenced by a couple of thousand dollars spent by someone at one of his hotels or golf courses?

(7) Stop obsessing over “leaks”.  There have always been leaks and always will.  If one gets caught illegally leaking, then they should go to jail. It’s true that some people leak for political purposes. But most of the people who leak the important stuff do so because they see our government, or members of the government, doing something wrong and getting away with it. Leaking is the only tool these people have to right these wrongs.

But focusing on the leaks instead of the material leaked is just a distraction to hide the real truth. After all, it’s the TRUTH that we are really after.

So, if you were not loudly protesting when Wiki-leaks published the DNC emails during the election and you are now making an issue out of the leaks today, or vice-versa, you are just proving what a hypocrite you really are, so shut the hell up.

(8) Stop listening to, or arguing with, conspiracy theorists from either side.  THERE ARE NO VAST RIGHT- or LEFT- WING CONSPIRACIES.  Those who think there are such conspiracies are not rational, and you cannot logically debate an irrational person.  Remember the saying, “Never argue with a pig. It just frustrates you and irritates the pig.”   If they can’t produce a logical argument backed up by FACTS, the only thing they are proving is that they are idiots.

(9) Stop listening to these stupid “news” shows that are NOT really news at all. Their primary objective is to increase ratings and their own income. The TRUTH is not any consideration at all to them.  When they are not outright lying and making things up, they are taking insignificant facts out of context and presenting them in a way to that make scandals out of them.

(10) Stop claiming “FAKE NEWS” when you see a story you don’t like.  Just because a story may later turn out to be false or unfounded does not make it FAKE NEWS. This is no different than those who claim Bush LIED about the WMD’s in Iraq when it later turned out that Hussein really did not have them. We are believed that these weapons did exist at that time.  Being wrong does not make you a liar. Reporting a story while following standard journalistic standards is not fake news even if the story later proves to be false.

SUSAN RICE

But the way I understand it, nether Susan Rice, or anyone else, could request that all incidents of “Donald Trump” be unmasked. Instead, they first had to read the transcript for a specific conversation, determine that a crime was possibly being committed or that national security was at risk, and THEN make a request to have that unknown person be unmasked.

And before that individual would be unmasked, the Intelligence agency must determine that the unmasking is necessary for her to complete her job and agree that the possible criminal activity took place or that national security is at risk.  THEN, and only then, will that unknown individual be unmasked for that conversation and only that conversation.

In other words, you can’t ask to have Donald Trump unmasked. Instead, you have to find the bad guy first and ask for the bad guy to be unmasked. And, since he IS masked, there is no way to know that it was Donald Trump before the unmasking.

So, that means that IF Susan Rice was the source of the leak, that there IS INDEED some evidence that a crime has been committed or that national security was at risk.  Think about THAT.

THE REAL MAJOR ISSUE

If it can be proven that Trump or any of his staff did work with Russia in either the DNC break-ins or to coordinate the timing of the releases of the emails, then that would be a major issue, and any person so involved should go to jail. But, we have not seen any evidence of this to date. Yes, there has been a lot of smoke, but no fire so far.  Once again, the Trump Administration’s continual lying about anything connected with this issue just adds fuel to the fire.  And Trump’s repeated tweets in an attempt to distract from this REAL issue by attempting to make the LEAKS themselves an issue ill just lead to ruin.

The Watergate Burglary was a small botched attempt to get information about the opposing party.  But it was the subsequent attempts to COVER THIS UP that led to Nixon’s downfall.