December 17, 2016, Russian to judgment
Item: A former RT ("Russia Today") on-air anchor suggests that "there really isn't a better mouthpiece for the Kremlin than Donald Trump."
Item: Media insider (and as offensive as anyone in this regard) Jake Tapper of ABC denies that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west the media was obsessed with coverage of the most picayune aspects of the DNC emails, Hillary emails and/or the Clinton Foundation while basically giving Trump a pass on his bad-ness. Good one, Jake. Honestly, our friend Professor Lemieux nails it by observing that the obsession with "fake news" overshadows the abysmal performance of the media with respect to (so-called) "real news."
Obviously, I myself have noted the thin reeds of "evidence" tying Russia to the supposed "hacking"...
Which, is all interesting, I suppose, as I kind of step on myself to some degree, by passing along this observation by noted-NSA-whistleblower-who-isn't-Edward-Snowden...
Item: William Binney observes that the evidence points to a leak (via copying to a thumb-drive) from the DNC rather than a hack (by the Russian state or by anyone else) because everything over the internet runs through the NSA, which would not only have proof of the hack, but forwarding and return addresses as well; Binney contends there is an American movement afoot to try to stir up "a new Cold War" or at least to justify ever higher defense spending in a world where the terrorist threat may be "manageable" to the point of lowering defense spending. Obviously, I kind of wish this report weren't itself on RT (i.e. Russian state media), but I nonetheless find Binney himself credible as a source and his logic pretty convincing, though, YMMV.
I say this as someone who not only voted for Hillary, but worked for her campaign, because I view Mr. Trump as not only dangerously unqualified and unstable, but just an individual of deficient character to be the President (even if I don't really like Secretary Clinton)... I just note the irony of the boat-load of criticism that Trump took for "refusing to accept the legitimacy of the election results," given that my own read of the "Russian hacking" canard is that it sure as hell looks like a feeble attempt by Hillary and her ilk to deflect attention from herself as to how miserable a campaign she ran allowing the most unqualified major party candidate ever to sneak in to the White House (to become the most unqualified President ever), albeit by a hair's breadth, and in the process, question the legitimacy of the election! Again.. YMMV.