Monday , March 18 2024
The latest Twitter lie puts him at odds with the CIA.

Trump Twitter Lie of the Day: Vlad and the President-Elect Against the World

So, here is Donald J. Trump‘s latest Twitter lie:

As you may recall, President-Elect Donald Trump insisted on New Year’s Eve that he “has more information” than everyone else about Russian interference in our election. He said he’d disclose it today (Tuesday) or tomorrow (Wednesday). And now, this latest tweet, in which he disparages the CIA and several other intelligence agencies for delaying the briefing. And then there’s the veiled (or maybe not so veiled) implication that there’s something untoward in this delay.

But, it turns out, there was never to have been a briefing on the hacking today. It has always been scheduled for Friday. And with this tweet, Trump once again is (at the best) dismissive and (at the worst) adversarial with our own U.S. intelligence services. It suggests a predisposition to dismiss the findings, preferring instead to put his faith in his BFF Vlad, whom Trump calls smart.

Let’s take a close look at the tweet. “Intelligence” in quotes, as if to suggest a priori that the reports of nearly 20 agencies are wrong or intentionally misleading. He makes this inference from his insistence that the intelligence services failed us regarding weapons of mass destruction before the Iraq war. Actually, he’s lying (or horribly misinformed) about that too, since the intelligence never said “weapons of mass destruction.” The good intelligence information was massaged and bent to serve Vice President Dick Cheney. (So I guess this post reveals not one but two Twitter lies).

The use of “so-called” Russian hacking again suggests that nothing that the CIA or any other agency can show Trump will suffice. I have to wonder, guys, if Trump really does know more than everyone else and actually had a hand in the entire Russian scheme. If that were the case, Trump would do everything he could to sabotage the impact of the real intelligence. I’m not saying I’ve got anything to back that up, but it’s awfully “strange.”

Perhaps they need more time to build a case? The case is built, and the real president (at least for the next two and half weeks) has acted upon it. What? The CIA has to prove itself to Trump? As if Trump will believe anything coming from the big bad government. Oh yeah, that he’s about to lead. Oy.

It’s almost as if this is all some sort of game for Trump. Only this game is like Russian roulette being played with live ammunition. Every tweet means something. Right now they mean little, but once he’s actually POTUS, those tweets are weapons that can trigger bad things.

Stay tuned for the next Trump Twitter Lie.

Follow me on Twitter at @B_Barnett

About Barbara Barnett

A Jewish mother and (young 🙃) grandmother, Barbara Barnett is an author and professional Hazzan (Cantor). A member of the Conservative Movement's Cantors Assembly and the Jewish Renewal movement's clergy association OHALAH, the clergy association of the Jewish Renewal movement. In her other life, she is a critically acclaimed fantasy/science fiction author as well as the author of a non-fiction exploration of the TV series House, M.D. and contributor to the book Spiritual Pregnancy. She Publisher/Executive Editor of Blogcritics, (blogcritics.org).

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One comment

  1. Dr Joseph S Maresca

    Soon enough, Potus-Elect Trump will have his own people in government telling him the same thing being told now or perhaps something different. The bottom line is this:

    What protects the government servers from unauthorized access in the instant case?
    There has to be one or more of the following controls in place.

    1. A centralized government IT Department responsible for security in all of the agencies. This means a systems area which sets protocols and monitors unauthorized accesses. Anyone who operates a simple email account knows that the telecommunications carrier controls access through a sophisticated assignment methodology for setting and changing passwords.

    2. The second possibility is to have each agency responsible for its own IT Security under the theory that the users should be in charge of their own security. Maybe this is alright with HUD or the Department of Transportation but the State and Defense Departments may need more centralized control.

    3. The third way is to buy a security package from the telecommunications carrier and let it be responsible for monitoring security accesses etc. They certainly have the internal tech expertise.

    4. The fourth way is to have every computer professionally cleaned on a periodic basis. i.e. monthly, quarterly. There is good software to accomplish this like Malwarebytes, Superantispyware, Kaspersky Anti-Virus and many others.

    When the next Administration takes charge, a strategic security approach must be formulated and adhered to on a consistent basis. That’s the system software part of the equation. There should be a systematic IT Audit requirement built into each major segment or done on a centralized basis.

    The next problem is deciding upon how much security needs to be designed in the hardware itself. i.e. concentrators … A sophisticated algorithm of data validations can deliver almost perfect security but the network itself may slow down considerably as these algorithms massage the data algorithmically. This takes time, may lead to more downtime, as well as, user dissatisfaction. There may be no simple answer to this problem. The process starts by talking to the telecommunications carrier first.