30 days since the National Day of Patriotic Devotion
(Morning Edition)
“Jeffrey Medford, a small-business owner in South Carolina, voted reluctantly for Donald Trump … Mr. Medford should be a natural ally for liberals trying to convince the country that Mr. Trump was a bad choice. But it is not working out that way. Every time Mr. Medford dips into the political debate – either with strangers on Facebook or friends in New York and Los Angeles – he comes away feeling battered by contempt and an attitude of moral superiority. “We’re backed into a corner,” said Mr. Medford, 46, whose business teaches people to be filmmakers. “There are at least some things about Trump I find to be defensible. But they are saying: ‘Agree with us 100 percent or you are morally bankrupt. You’re an idiot if you support any part of Trump.’ ” He added: “I didn’t choose a side. They put me on one.” The New York Times, 19 February 2017
What the hell is wrong with this guy? Is he totally spineless? Has he got no self-determination at all? Nobody put him on a side. Nobody put me on a side. If he’s on a side, if I’m on a side, it’s because we chose to be there. We may have made the wrong choice, but for Christ’s sake, own it. Own up to your beliefs. Stand on your principles. Don’t whine about how the mean old liberals or conservatives or whoever made you do it.
“The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is pursuing at least three separate probes relating to alleged Russian hacking of the U.S. presidential elections … The FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, which runs many cyber security investigations, is trying to identify the people behind breaches of the Democratic National Committee’s computer systems … Those breaches, in 2015 and the first half of 2016, exposed the internal communications of party officials as the Democratic nominating convention got underway and helped undermine support for Hillary Clinton. Meanwhile the bureau’s San Francisco office is trying to identify the people who called themselves “Guccifer 2” and posted emails stolen from Clinton campaign manager John Podesta’s account … Those emails contained details about fundraising by the Clinton Foundation and other topics. Beyond the two FBI field offices, FBI counterintelligence agents based in Washington are pursuing leads from informants and foreign communications intercepts.” Reuters, 18 February 2017
This Is Drivel 