Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue

Something/Someone Old
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I woke up today with this song on my mind:

This is the Monotones singing "Book of Love." That is an Old Thing. But I didn't realize I'd find not one, but two Old Things. This is, according to the poster, the "Saturday Night Beech-Nut Show" from 1958. I have no idea what a "beech-nut" is (are they punning on beach nut? even if they were I don't really get it.)

But look how young Dick Clark looks!

Another Something Old: a spinning wheel I might buy for my partner:

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Something New
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There was a new break in the "Russia helped get Trump elected" story. This is from the NY Times:

Before arranging a meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer he believed would offer him compromising information about Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Jr. was informed in an email that the material was part of a Russian government effort to aid his father’s candidacy, according to three people with knowledge of the email.

The email to the younger Mr. Trump was sent by Rob Goldstone, a publicist and former British tabloid reporter who helped broker the June 2016 meeting. In a statement on Sunday, Mr. Trump acknowledged that he was interested in receiving damaging information about Mrs. Clinton, but gave no indication that he thought the lawyer might have been a Kremlin proxy.

So, like anybody campaigning against anybody for high office since 1980, they were interested in receiving damaging information about their opponent.

You know what? When I worked on campaigns, I absolutely would have wanted any damaging information on my candidate's opponent, and if someone offered such, I would absolutely have met with them and given them a hearing. And I'm just a naive little progressive who doesn't understand how Washington works.

That's called politics, people. If you had a problem with it, you should have said so roughly at this point:

And definitely before this point:

HACKED EMAILS SHOW that movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, a longtime ally of Hillary Clinton and a major fundraiser for her 2016 campaign, urged her campaign team to silence rival Bernie Sanders’s message against police shootings of African-Americans. He suggested countering it with “the Sandy Hook issue” — a reference to Sanders’s opposition to lawsuits against gun manufacturers.

https://theintercept.com/2016/10/07/harvey-weinstein-urged-clinton-campa...

And obviously before this point:

The story began making the rounds at Washington dinner parties late last summer: Donald Trump had been caught in a compromising sexual position by Russian intelligence agents during a business trip to Moscow. According to one version, told by a high-ranking Obama administration diplomat, Russian intelligence services, acting on Trump’s well-known obsession with sex, had arranged an evening for him with a bevy of hookers, with hidden cameras and microphones recording all the action. The jaw-dropping detail that topped the story? Trump had somehow engaged in “golden showers,” sex acts involving urine.

The veracity of the report and its sourcing have not been verified.

http://www.newsweek.com/trump-russian-spies-infamous-golden-shower-memos...

If you wanted a politics that was not scurrilous, you could have spoken up at any time over the past 45 years. Those of us who have been fighting against this pernicious scandal-mongering for years, unsuccessfully, would have appreciated the help. But you didn't, for some reason.

So, how did the nefarious Russian sabotage of Hillary Clinton go down?

The email to the younger Mr. Trump was sent by Rob Goldstone, a publicist and former British tabloid reporter who helped broker the June 2016 meeting. In a statement on Sunday, Mr. Trump acknowledged that he was interested in receiving damaging information about Mrs. Clinton, but gave no indication that he thought the lawyer might have been a Kremlin proxy.

So a former British tabloid reporter set up a meeting for you with a lawyer who said she had damaging information about Hillary Clinton?

If I were the campaign manager, I'd have met the guy, and listened to him, but with roughly a whole shaker of salt. Mainly because I don't control a media cartel which specializes in making absurd, baseless claims into received wisdom, and therefore I would need to make sure that neither my candidate nor I could later be attacked on the lack of veracity of any claims we made.

But apparently now engaging in ordinary campaign behavior--and this is ordinary behavior, albeit from the less pleasant side of campaign politics--is evidence of some kind of largely unspecified guilt which has something to do with the Russkies making sure we didn't get Hillary in office.

You can campaign in America, but not against her.

Before I get into whether there's any New evidence here that Russia was trying to tilt the electoral field against Hillary, perhaps we could take a minute to consider America's position, or at least the position of its politicians and press, on foreign influence in our electoral process. For instance, if the New York Times was upset about foreign influence in our elections, they might have wanted to say something about this:

THE INTERCEPT HAS discovered that American Pacific International Capital, a company incorporated in California but owned and controlled by Gordon Tang and Huaidan Chen, a married couple who are Chinese nationals, made donations totaling $1.3 million to the Jeb Bush Super PAC Right to Rise USA.

or this:

...the 2016 election has seen a surge of contributions to Super PACs by so-called ghost corporations, which appear to exist solely to make those donations and whose ownership is unknown. Whether any of these corporations are ultimately owned by foreign nationals is likewise unknown.

or the fact that non-profits are an even better way to pour foreign money into American elections:

The 501(c)(4) and 501(c)(6) organizations are, in fact, much more attractive than Super PACs to anyone hoping to influence elections anonymously, because, unlike Super PACs, they are not required to publicly disclose their donors. This is why contributions to politically active nonprofits are often referred to as “dark money.”

This additional layer of obfuscation makes it even less likely that money originating with foreign nationals would be noticed. For instance, if APIC had donated to Right to Rise Policy Solutions, a 501(c)(4) that was affiliated with the Right to Rise USA Super PAC, it’s unlikely The Intercept would have ever discovered its involvement in the election or ultimate ownership.

In fact, you'd think that the New York Times would be quite interested to know that the Saudis, who share a nationality with all but two of the 9/11 hijackers, do quite a bit of meddling in American politics themselves:

Want an example? Consider, for instance, that the American Petroleum Institute is partially financed by the U.S. subsidiary of Aramco, the state-owned Saudi oil company. In the 2010 midterm elections, API was one of the funders behind attack ads that helped the Republican Party take back the House of Representatives from the Democrats and stop most of Obama’s plans in their tracks.

https://theintercept.com/2016/08/03/citizens-united-foreign-money-us-ele...

So, now that we've established what this country's position really is on foreign influence over our electoral process, namely, if it doesn't bother someone whose name is Bush or Clinton we don't give a shit, let's get to whether or not there's any evidence of Russian involvement in the election in this latest breaking news. Here's what they base their story on:

Mr. Goldstone’s message, as described to The New York Times by the three people [the sources for the NY Times story], indicates that the Russian government was the source of the potentially damaging information.

Let's take this apart carefully.

The first point: The NY Times never saw that email. It was "described to the New York Times." They are relying on the word of their sources. While it would obviously be better if NY Times reporters saw the information on which they base their article, it's not unheard of to rely on a source in this way. Except--

The second point: Why didn't the sources show the NY Times the email? The simplest explanation is that they didn't have access to it. Did they have it, then delete it? That would be strange behavior for someone who was worried that the sovereignty of their country and the integrity of their elections was at stake. Did they never have it at all? In that case, how did they know about it? Did they ever see it themselves? Did they just hear about it? This is a fairly important question that the New York Times doesn't go into. In a court, it would be the difference between evidence and hearsay. But it's not of interest to the New York Times.

This brings up the question: how does the NY Times know there ever was such an email? Luckily, the former tabloid reporter/publicist, Mr. Goldstone, gave an interview this Monday, so at least we know there was an actual meeting. At least this isn't all about nothing:

Mr. Goldstone represents Russian pop star Emin Agalarov, whose father was President Trump’s business partner in bringing the Miss Universe pageant to Moscow in 2013. In an interview Monday, Mr. Goldstone said he was asked by Mr. Agalarov to set up the meeting with Donald Trump Jr. and the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya.

A fact. Thank God.

“He said, ‘I’m told she has information about illegal campaign contributions to the D.N.C.,’” Goldstone recalled, referring to the Democratic National Committee. He said he then emailed Don Jr., outlining what the lawyer purported to have.

But Mr. Goldstone, who wrote the email over a year ago, denied any knowledge of involvement by the Russian government in the matter, saying that never dawned on him. “Never, never ever,” he said. Later, after the email was described to The Times, efforts to reach him for further comment were unsuccessful.

Third point: So the Times...interviewed Mr. Goldstone BEFORE the email was described to them? Why is this starting to sound like they interviewed Goldstone, didn't get the answer they liked, and then suddenly found--between Monday and today--three sources who described Goldstone's email to them?

Now let's get into what the sources purportedly described to the New York Times.

Mr. Goldstone’s message, as described to The New York Times by the three people [the sources for the NY Times story], indicates that the Russian government was the source of the potentially damaging information.

The verbal description of Mr. Goldstone's message, a message the New York Times hasn't seen, and which the New York Times hasn't said its sources have seen, indicates that the Russian government was the source of information that was potentially damaging to Hillary Clinton.

Indicates it? How, exactly? You see, this is where having the actual words in front of you would help, so that you weren't relying merely on three people telling you that they knew, somehow, that the email involved said, no, wait, indicated, that the Russian government was trying to peddle damaging information about Hillary Clinton.

Fourth point: What was the information? Was it true? Was it false? Did it ever even exist, or was the claim a cheap stunt to get the ear of someone close to Donald Trump and talk about something else entirely?

[Donald Trump, Jr.] said that the Russian lawyer produced nothing of consequence, and that the meeting ended after she began talking about the Magnitsky Act — an American law that blacklists suspected Russian human rights abusers. The 2012 law so enraged Mr. Putin that he halted American adoptions of Russian children.

Mr. Goldstone said Ms. Veselnitskaya only offered “just a vague, generic statement about the campaign’s funding and how people, including Russian people, living all over the world donate when they shouldn’t donate” before turning to her anti-Magnitsky Act arguments.

“It was the most inane nonsense I’ve ever heard,” he said. “And I was actually feeling agitated by it. Had I, you know, actually taken up what is a huge amount of their busy time with this nonsense?”

The New York Times seems utterly uninterested in what information Veselnitskaya had about Clinton, or if she ever had any.

Conclusion: Once again, there is no proof of Russian government involvement in Trump's election, and, in fact, there is actually no proof that any damaging information about Hillary Clinton ever existed, whether factual or contrived.

Yet here's the lead-off sentence in their article:

Before arranging a meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer he believed would offer him compromising information about Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Jr. was informed in an email that the material was part of a Russian government effort to aid his father’s candidacy, according to three people with knowledge of the email.

Let me fix that for you, NYT.

"Before arranging a meeting with a Russian lawyer who claimed to have compromising information about Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Jr. received an email which three sources claim contained an assertion that the compromising information came from the Russian government. The Times has not been able to view the email, nor verify the claim that the author, a former British tabloid reporter and publicist named Goldstone, actually said the purported information came from the Russian government. Mr. Goldstone, in an interview given Monday, claims he never thought any such information came from the Russian government. Mr. Goldstone further states that at the meeting, lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya proved to have no compromising information at all, but apparently had used the claim of possessing some to get the ear of someone close to Trump because she wanted to reverse a 2012 U.S. law regarding the blacklisting of Russians accused of human rights abuses."

How's that?

Something Borrowed
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Did we borrow some of the ideas in the Constitution from the Iroquois?

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This is from an article by historian Ellen Holmes Pearson:

Those who support the theory that the First Peoples influenced the drafting of the founding documents point to the words of founders such as Benjamin Franklin, who in 1751 wrote to his printer colleague James Parker that “It would be a strange thing if Six Nations of ignorant savages should be capable of forming a scheme for such an union, and be able to execute it in such a manner as that it has subsisted ages and appears indissoluble; and yet that a like union should be impracticable for ten or a dozen English colonies.” Native American Studies Professor Bruce Johansen and American Studies Professor Donald Grinde, among others, argue that American colonists, in Johansen’s words, “drew freely on the image of the American Indian as an exemplar of the spirit of liberty they so cherished.” These scholars argue that the framers of American governments understood and admired Native American government structures, and they borrowed certain indigenous concepts for their own governments.

Other scholars are not convinced. Anthropologist Elisabeth Tooker, for example, argued that European political theory and precedent furnished the models for American Founders, while evidence for Indian influence was very thin. Although the concept of the Iroquoian Confederation may have been similar to the United States’ first efforts to unite alliance, the Iroquois constructed their government under very different principles. The member nations of the Iroquois League all lived under matrilineal societies, in which they inherited status and possessions through the mother’s line. Headmen were not elected, but rather clan mothers chose them. Representation was not based on equality or on population. Instead, the number of Council members per nation was based on the traditional hierarchy of nations within the confederation. Moreover, the League of Six Nations did not have a centralized authority like that of the federal system the Euro-Americans eventually adopted.

http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/24099

There's no doubt that our government and the government of the Iroquois Confederacy were quite different in many fundamental ways, but I don't think that precludes some Borrowing here. What do you think?

Something/Someone Blue
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Why is Krishna blue?

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There seem to be conflicting explanations.

Krishna is an avatar of Vishnu, who is associated with the waters, so some think that every avatar of Vishnu ought to be blue on that account. Other explanations have to do with Hindu color symbolism:

According to Hinduism, blue is the colour of the Infinite. The colour symbolises the all pervading and never ending reality or the formless Brahman. That is why many deities like Ram, Krishna and sometimes even Lord Shiva is depicted in blue colour.

Other myths ascribe Krishna's blue skin to failed attempts to poison him!

Putana Legend: According to the legends once a demoness called Putana came to kill Lord Krishna when He was a baby. She gave the Lord her poisoned milk to drink. Lord Krishna did not die but His colour changed to blue. He later killed the demoness but His skin colour remained blue.

Kaaliya Legend: Another legend is of the Kaaliya serpent who lived in the Yamuna river. The serpent had created a havoc for the residents of Gokul. So, when Lord Krishna went to fight the serpent, the poison of the deadly snake made Krishna's skin colour blue.

Read more at: https://www.boldsky.com/yoga-spirituality/faith-mysticism/2014/why-is-lo...

Still others say that his skin was not literally blue; that blue skin is the pictorial representation of Krishna's all-inclusive "blue" energy:

You will see in the existence, anything that is vast and beyond your perception generally tends to be blue, whether it is the ocean or the sky. Anything which is larger than your perception tends to be blue because blue is the basis of all-inclusiveness. It is based on this that so many gods in India are shown as blue-skinned. Shiva has a blue skin, Krishna has a blue skin, Rama has a blue skin. It is not that their skin was blue. They were referred to as blue gods because they had a blue aura.

This blueness, this sense of all-inclusiveness in him was such that even people who were sworn enemies of his sat with him and unwittingly gave in to him. He was able to effortlessly turn around even people who abused and plotted to kill him any number of times. There are various other aspects to him but this blue nature constantly assisted him in everything that he did. He was so irresistible that even Poothana, the assassin who came to kill him when he was just a baby, fell in love with him. She was with him for just a few minutes but she became completely entangled in his blue magic.

http://isha.sadhguru.org/blog/yoga-meditation/history-of-yoga/why-is-kri...

When I was little, my mom had a copy of the Bhagavad-Gita lying around, and I loved the pictures.

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Here are some other cool pictures of Krishna:

krishna1.jpg

krishna3.jpg

krishna2.jpg

How are you all doing today?

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riverlover's picture

Mind you, she does not sleep in bed with me. I do not disallow it, but generally, she seems to prefer the two sofas at multiple levels downstairs. Now, I have been attempting to start some weight reduction for her by cutting portion size back. So things here are incomprehensible to a dog. She hopped up on my bed and as usual, stood on my chest (and bladder) to rouse me. It works for her!

My computer has been buggy recently. Restarts would help some. I decided to reboot the modem as well this AM. Then computer and Win10 did an update, so a 10 min restart. Time will tell.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@riverlover Do I ever know what that's like. See below!

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@riverlover Here's hoping your computer behaves well today.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Arrow's picture

Really fine reading this morning.

So are you implying that 'The Evening Blues' is really a homage to Krishna? I didn't know Joe had that kind of mystical side.

Have a great day all.

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I want a Pony!

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Arrow Wow, Arrow, I didn't think of that! Of course I should put The Evening Blues in as "Something Blue" one of these weeks. As for Joe, I'm guessing it's more a homage to Sun House than to Krishna, but I could be wrong!

Thanks for the kind words.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

Yesterday was a crap day for me, literally--began by being woken up abruptly by my partner after the cat temperamentally took a crap right in front of her because cat was tired of waiting for its breakfast--and waiting for me to get up. After I cleaned it up, I went back to bed. The cat, who had been just fine while I cleaned the mess up, promptly came in my room and vomited! No more bed for you!

It turned into the kind of day I can't stand--where I get nothing done. By evening, I was in a mood, which persisted until it turned into a fit of the giggles at a restaurant and an impromptu filking of D'yer Mak'er:

Oh oh oh oh oh oh
I just stubbed my toe
Oh oh oh oh
And it hurt me so
Oh oh oh oh
To the doc I go-ooo

Here's hoping today will be a better day. I think it will--today the cat woke me up much earlier, with purring, rather than quite late with ejecta. I've already started painting the remainder of the foam panels I'm putting paint colors on, at dance you monster's advice, so I can set the panels up around the house and see how the colors look in different lights. While waiting for the first panel to dry I thought I'd come in and see how y'all are doing.

Morning!

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

riverlover's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal We may have channeling animals. Kitty upchuck is bad. Dogs clear the mess up unless they are really sick.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

Life begins when the kids go off to school and the dog dies.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Meteor Man's picture

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Meteor Man Thanks so much for clearing that up! I was really scratching my head.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal or it might have been chewing tobacco:

https://casetext.com/case/beech-nut-packing-co-v-p-lorillard-co

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Meteor Man's picture

Total agreement on the Russian hysteria. Consortium News agrees and offers Ten Reasons this story proves nothing except Don Jr. was dropped on his head as a child:

https://consortiumnews.com/2017/07/09/ten-problems-with-anti-russian-obs...

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Azazello's picture

of the Bisbee Deportation. You can read about it here: Tucson Weekly
Have a nice day.

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

mimi's picture

@Azazello

makes me want to dig further into US labor union and socialists' history in the US. It's pretty awful. I need more documentaries about it. That article is a good catalyst to search for more.

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CS in AZ's picture

@Azazello

Incredible, how sad and infuriating it all is. Corporations doing whatever they want, destroying lives to put more money in their own pockets, and getting away with it. This has been going on for so long, as that article shows so well. Bisbee is a wonderful place, we love visiting there as a day trip every once in a awhile.

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Azazello's picture

@CS in AZ
Some folks are making a commemorative film. We'll check that out, maybe be extras. I wrote a piece about the deportation for another site back in 2011. It's here if you're interested.

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

If you are 62 YO or older there is a fee increase coming for lifetime pass to national parks at the end of August. See news release below.

Congressionally Mandated Senior Pass Price Increase to Take Effect on August 28 - NPS News Release July 10, 2017

WASHINGTON – In order to meet requirements set by legislation passed by Congress in December 2016, the price of the America the Beautiful – National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Senior Pass will increase from $10 to $80. The change will take effect August 28, 2017. Pass holders are given lifetime access to more than 2,000 sites and parks. The fee increase will support critical investments in maintenance projects at national parks and federal recreational lands nationwide.

The Senior Pass has cost $10 since 1994. Until August 28, U.S. citizens and permanent residents who are 62 years or older can purchase the lifetime Senior Pass for $10. Previously purchased lifetime Golden Age or Senior Passes will be honored for the lifetime of the pass holder.

The Senior Pass can be used at sites managed by the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Forest Service, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Funds from passes are used to enhance the visitor experience and support priority projects and programs.

The pass can be purchased for $10 before August 28 at a national park or other Federal recreation area that charges an entrance or standard amenity (day use) fee. The pass can also be obtained by mail or on line, for $10 before August 28 but there will be an additional $10 charge for processing, for a total of $20. Due to expected high order volume, there could be delays with online and mail order processing of up to several months.

The legislation requires that the price of the lifetime Senior Pass be the same as the Interagency Annual Pass, which is currently $80. The legislation also introduces a new annual Senior Pass that can be purchased for $20. Seniors who purchase annual Senior Passes for four years can trade them in for a lifetime Senior Pass at no additional charge.

The Senior Pass covers all entrance fees and standard amenity (day use) fees and may provide senior discounts for things such as tours or campsites. The pass also waives the entrance fee for travelling companions. At per-vehicle fee sites, the pass admits the pass holder and all passengers in a noncommercial vehicle. At a per-person fee site, the pass admits the pass holder and three other adults. Children under 16 are always admitted free.

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Love the spinning wheel. I would like to know how to actually use one. It reminds me of Gandhi encouraging the people to spin their own cloth in order to stick it to the man.
Much thanks for taking the time to flesh out the "SCANDAL", I can use those details to help arm me in my ongoing battle against the ever present BS.

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studentofearth's picture

@randtntx starts with an inexpensive Ashford student hand spindle. Humans have been using them for over 20,000 years for all types for fibers. The wheel was a technological jump for a cottage industry vs spinning at home or while traveling.

wool roving and a hand spindle
soe hand spindle1.JPG

Not fond of the CD disk spindle. Most are put together without a thought of balance. A stick stabbed into a potato works as well or better than the CD.

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Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

@studentofearth That's very encouraging to know that spinning is not too difficult to learn. Thank you for the info about the spindle. I will research further. I never actually seriously considered learning how to spin, but I do a bit of knitting, and it might be fun to spin my own yarn.

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and the wind is blowing fiercely off the lake. Huge white caps. Leaving for home tomorrow am and won't be back until August.

Michigan has had a really shitty summer imo. Super hot, super cold, meh all in the same week, week after week. We really haven't had much of a summer at all. Meanwhile they're melting out west.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

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Good news everyone! Nevada has a drug problem: Shops are running out of marijuana
Biggrin

Nevada officials have declared a state of emergency over marijuana: There’s not enough of it.

Since recreational pot became legal two weeks ago, retail dispensaries have struggled to keep their shelves stocked and say they will soon run out if nothing is done to fix a broken supply chain.

“We didn’t know the demand would be this intense,” Al Fasano, cofounder of Las Vegas ReLeaf, said Tuesday. "All of a sudden you have like a thousand people at the door.…We have to tell people we’re limited in our products.”

Namaste

peace

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@eyo That is an amazing story about Shiva. Thanks for sharing it, because I didn't know, and it will actually be important, I think, to one of my loved ones.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

becomes "treason" (or even a misdemeanor) if your source is a representative of another country. (We started with "hacked an election," and "subverted the US's {nonexistent} democracy, then scaled all the way back to the far more accurate "meddled with an election," but recently ramped all the way up to "treason." Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.

The US has been in an undeclared war against the First Amendment for quite some time now. It has also been after wikileaks for quite some time. It really ought "cut it out" on both counts.

Article III, Section 3, first paragraph.

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.

Sorry, but anyone who thinks the Framers had in mind facing a firing squad for listening to what a foreign government might have to say about your political opponent is, IMO, brainwashed or clueless or both.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@HenryAWallace No fracking kidding! As somebody who's actually done this sort of thing more than once, on occasion for pay, it would be nice to keep track of the process by which my activities are retroactively being turned into at best crime, and at worst the specific crime of treason.

Next they'll be saying it's terrorism.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@HenryAWallace But I think, neither brainwashed nor clueless: I would say a malevolent attempt to further alter our political culture in a fascist, authoritarian direction, criminalizing yet more of the day-to-day practices of a republic--while, as a side benefit, creating the pretense that the political story went the way the elites expected it to last year.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver