#especially given the fact that the FBI sent out a warning saying they thought ‘foreign terrorist organizations’ would target pride

[idkhowtopickausername]

I saw a video from the West Hollywood pride parade that showed FBI agents there with guns and one of them was wearing a shirt that said FBI in rainbow colors on the back 😐

[nobszone]

Mr. President: It’s your job to stop this.

So I know all three of you are wondering where I’ve been. Well, here I am once again. Before we get started, I’d like to answer two questions.

1. The Muller Report has been public for the better part of a month, and the summary by Attorney General William Barr has been out longer, so why has it taken me this long to comment on it? Well the main reason has been certain RL issues that have kept me away from here longer than usual. Aside from that, I was not comfortable summarizing a summary, especially one that I suspected was not telling us the whole story (and it seems my suspicions may have been correct). 

2. What are my thoughts? Well I did a podcast last week with my guy Sharpwing where I go over my reaction to the report. So if any of you ever wanted to hear my lovely voice, give it a listen.

For the rest of you: we’ve managed to avoid the absolute nightmare scenario of a US President willingly working for the Russian Government. But the question of whether or not he broke the law is still somewhat up in the air. Muller seems to think that Trump obstructed justice (and more importantly, Trump probably thinks that as well).

But I’m not here to talk about that. I’m here to talk about something much more important.

The Russian interference in the 2016 election is real. It’s no longer “fake news” or a conspiracy theory or an entry in the Hillary Clinton Excuse Rolodex. This happened. 

Now do I believe that this was the reason Trump won? No. I imagine even if the Russians didn’t do anything, Trump still would’ve won. Maybe it would’ve been closer, maybe it might have even gone to SCOTUS like in 2000. But ultimately America was going to pick one unelectable candidate over another. 

But here’s my point. This is now bigger than just an election. This is bigger than Trump, Clinton, Sanders, all of them.

Russia has shown that they are willing to attack us via cyberspace, and more importantly, they can.

And Trump seems willing to let that happen.

But why? What would Trump have to gain from doing nothing to stop this? Is there a reason why he would talk about the investigation in a call with Putin and not warn him against doing it again? Is there a reason that Senior White House staff told now-ex Homeland Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen not to talk about election security with Trump?

I think that there is, but it’s much more petty than you might think. 

I don’t believe that Trump won solely because of the Russians. But many on the left do.

And I bet Trump does as well.

It’s one thing to say “there’s no collusion.” It’s another thing to say “Russia didn’t do anything”, despite mountains of evidence indicating that Russian agents have been engaged in a campaign to sow discord among our populace and install distrust in our democratic process since 2014. To deny that the Internet Research Agency has sent operatives to US soil, posing as American citizens and interest groups, with the explicit purpose to cause a rife in our society and a breakdown in discourse. 

To deny all that? It flies in the face of common sense and natural intelligence. Not to mention military intelligence.

The sad part is that there’s a way that all of this could’ve been avoided. Trump would’ve saved himself (and the country) a lot of grief if he came out after then-FBI Director James Comey announced the start of what would ultimately become the Muller investigation and said this:

“My fellow Americans, it has come to my attention that there’s been some concerns regarding interference by the Russian Government in last year’s election, as well as possible involvement by staff in my campaign. 

“I strongly condemn the actions of the Russian Government. These are the actions of an aggressive power that are a direct attack on this nation’s greatest asset: our democratic process. I strongly warn President Putin that further actions will risk unraveling the partnership our nations have worked to build since the end of the Cold War and could result in grave consequences for Russia and her citizens.

“As for the potential involvement of my campaign; to my knowledge none of my staff willingly cooperated with Russian nationals to carry out these actions. But the Department of Justice will have my full support in their investigation and we will provide any information they deem necessary in the pursuit of bringing any individuals who assisted in this grave offense against our nation to justice. Once the investigation is finished, the findings will be made public so the American people can know for themselves the scope of this attempt to subvert our democracy, and you have my full assurance that we will do our utmost to prevent a recurrence of these attempts and ensure secure, safe, and fair elections in the future.” 

If Trump comes out and says that, a lot of this would’ve been avoided. Even if you thought he was still dirty, at least we would have the notion that he acknowledged that it happened and was working to make sure it didn’t happen again.

Instead, he tweets out “WITCH HUNT!” or “PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT” or my personal favorite “NO COLLUSION NO OBSTRUCTION!” even though the report explicitly stated that Trump wasn’t exonerated when it came to obstruction (though the White House would really really like the legal eagles to say otherwise).

Oh and his reaction to finding out that Muller was finishing the job that Comey started (and was fired for) was to say “I’m fucked. This is the end of my Presidency.” Not exactly a vote of confidence. Neither, for that matter, is the fact that he tried to stop it. Several times. 

But more importantly, Trump (as usual) is distracting us from the bigger issue: Russia is willing to attack us via cyberspace. And I bet they’re not going to stop with memes or fake Facebook accounts or trying to hack voter registration data. 

Today? It’s an election. Tomorrow? It could be the Stock Market, the electrical grid, our fleet of drones, our internet access, who knows? 

The question is what are we going to do about it?

Well, Trump better figure something out, because it’s his job to do something about this. Just like it was Hillary’s job to make sure she didn’t have sensitive emails on her private server. It is 1000% Trump’s job to stop Russia from engaging in cyberattacks against us, or at the very least making sure they don’t try to mess with our elections.

You may think you only won because of them, Don, but that’s irrelevant.

It’s your job to stop the Russians.

If you don’t want to stop them, then you shouldn’t have the job.

Well, my fellow countrymen have about a year and half to decide if they’re okay with keeping a guy who is okay with letting Russia attack us. A guy that Russia really wants to be President. 

As for me? I’m not okay with it. And if that means I gotta vote for Bernie Sanders or Joe Freakin Biden next year? So be it.

Because I’m an American, and I’m damn proud of it. This country has given me so much and I will do anything I can to protect her from enemies foreign and domestic.

And as far as I’m concerned? 

Right now the best way to do that is to do the opposite of what the Russians want me to do.

Фуцк ыоу, Вова.