Through the Looking Glass in htraE, a Bizarro World

Headlines are screaming that the allegation that senior Russian officials celebrated the defeat of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election proves successful Russian hacking and interference in US elections. If there were any sense to that, the current US president would have expelled, not only 35 innocent Russian diplomats, but Israeli diplomats as well.

How dumb is the American electorate? We all have opinions but evidently the Obama administration’s intelligence community and its captive segment of the mainstream media are placing a great deal of faith in our being very, very naïve (at best). Of course, we’ve not infrequently provided them with proof of that, think Iraq, Libya, Syria, the Ukraine, and that’s only recently.

So, ….

When haven’t governments the world over but especially our government favored candidates more in tune with their beliefs or interests over others? When haven’t senior officials celebrated the defeat of candidates who wished them ill? And doesn’t the allegation that the US has captured “definitive” information to that effect prove that the US is doing exactly what it is bemoaning the Russians allegedly did to us?

The headlines on MSNBC this epiphanius morning screamed “US has ID’d Russians Who Gave Hacked Emails to WikiLeaks” but no such information was contained in the article (see http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/top-russians-celebrated-when-trump-won-intel-report-says-source-n703741), indeed, the article to which the link leads has a different headline “Top Russians Celebrated When Trump Won, Intel Report Says: Source”. So, about the Netanyahu celebration? Does that mean the Israelis also hacked the released emails and handed them to WikiLeaks? Actually, the latter scenario is much more probable. And their names? Oh, right, … that!

Of course, there was testimony to Congress met with bipartisan approval from outgoing Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, you remember him, he was the one who testified under oath to Congress a few years ago denying the subsequently disclosed massive permanent NSA domestic spying operation. Certainly someone we should again believe rather than relying on his proven reputation as a perjurer.

So, … on the other foot (or in conclusion), the allegation is that in democracies like ours, the disclosure of relevant, truthful information is bad and manipulative, perhaps an act of war, because … Hmmmm.

Is the allegation that democracies best operate in the dark with false or misleading information successfully manipulated by purported journalists?

Evidently so for way too many (one person believing that being one too many) people.

Bizarre.
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© Guillermo Calvo Mahé; Manizales, 2017; all rights reserved