Link Bundle #5

Onwards.

"What you’re looking at here is a directed campaign of information warfare."  - True, and we now know a large part of that is a coordinated global destabilization campaign directed from Russia. But Russia is only one part, not even close to the main part, of a steady campaign of paranoia and conspiracy theory deliberately spread by the right in America. Limbaugh, Hannity and the like spread it. The Religious Right spreads it. Hell, this has been a thing since slaveowners claimed northern preachers were coming south to encourage violent slave revolts. There's a large part of America primed to believe in any conspiracy if the theory comes from the right source... and our president, as Mr. Wright points out, is one such person, easy for anybody to manipulate.

Quod erat demonstrandum.

Republicans know Trump's racist, fascist followers are the true GOP base voters. That's why they're running scared.

Since this article ran, you can add a #7: all Republican incumbents (except Ted Cruz).

Trump leadership in action. (Bonus points for having Isaac "Girls Ruin Comics" Perlmutter as an advisor.)

More leadership in action. (Nothing seems to have come of this yet.)

One of many consequences of Trump's victory: a new FCC chair who seeks to dismantle Net Neutrality, remove all regulation from telecommunications, and prevent any effective enforcement of regulations not yet removed. Of course, he has allies in Congress.

We already know about Steve Bannon, Sebastian Gorka, and Stephen Miller, (more on Miller) among others. Now meet Michael Anton, yet another racist and bigoted White House inner advisor. What does it say about Trump himself that he routinely and consistently gathers people like this to him? (To say nothing of his supporters, who are openly and shamelessly racist.)

Here was the first sign that the Trump administration didn't give a rat's ass about cybersecurity- especially not its own. Far from the last.

How Trump's America looks from outside the US and from the perspective of European history.

 Yet another observation of a basic truth: back in the 1980s we had all sorts of dystopian futures warning us of the consequences of conservative economic policies. And the conservatives took those movies and books as HOW-TO guides.

Conservatives are cowards. Evidence. Evidence.

A very rare case of justice. (And this sort of thing is why Richard Spencer tells his lie that he advocates "non-violent" ethnic cleansing.)

Another rare case of justice. If Kennedy retires while Trump retains power, we can kiss this kind of justice goodbye in favor of Roberts and Gorsuch's white supremacy.

I've read many Democratic Party fans saying that Bernie Sanders is nothing but a glory hog, finding any pulpit he can to extend his fifteen minutes of fame. Possibly. But what he's doing, EVERY GODDAMN DEMOCRAT OUGHT TO BE DOING, here and here and elsewhere. A politician unwilling to fight for what he or she believes in is worthless.

And that's all for today.