Russian Burglars, Our Democracy and a Siberian Jay
Forty-four years ago, five men broke into Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters in Washington, D.C., determined to help secure the presidency for a Republican. The scene of the crime, besides Richard Nixon’s White House, was the Watergate Hotel.
Since then, all manner of crimes or misdemeanors have been named with the suffix -gate, everything from Contragate to Monicagate, Nannygate to Deflategate. Most of them cheapened the severity of the Watergate break-in and cover-up.
Now comes hard evidence from The New York Times of yet another break-in at the DNC, a computer hacking by Russian burglars. This one is crime against democracy. If such villainy could ever warrant comparison to Watergate, this is such a crime. And no self-respecting defender of democracy, especially a man about to assume the presidency, should dismiss this as anything less than a clear and present threat to the legitimacy of our government — now and into the future. Sure, Donald Trump should be skeptical of U.S. “intelligence” — but not in utter denial or contempt of it.
Yes, this is mostly a blog about nature. Now I worry about the nature of our democracy. Read it for yourself in that article I link to above — some stellar journalism on the part of The Times. And if that’s not enough nature for you, here’s a Siberian Jay.
Let us not forget that the “justly unpopular candidate” won the popular vote.
Thank you for speaking out, Bryan. We all have a duty to do whatever we can to protect our country, our democracy, and our earth and to do everything in our power to change the road we are currently heading down even if that means speaking your mind on a nature blog. We must always try to educate in whatever manner we can. Thank you!
Right on, Bryan! Thanks for the post.
Thanks, Veer. Wise words. I’ll keep trying to unify nature, beauty and, uh, truth.
The curious and rather dark ability to compartmentalise between our practices of governance and towards nature has brought the planet to a dire place. A 17c (I think) English poet (Herbert?) wrote: Is there in truth no beauty? There’s beauty not only in the Jay but in the truth of this post. Thank you for it!
I’m with you, “Wendell.” But just because intelligence sources are often unintelligent doesn’t mean that’s the case here. And the Dems lost for lots of reasons, most of which have been hashed out ad nauseam by now (but still worth talking about over coffee). Even if Hillary had won, this would still be an issue. Also on the Dems, you might like this (even though I know you hate The Times :-)): http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/14/opinion/buck-up-democrats-and-fight-like-republicans.html
Of course. Thanks, Rollin! Correction coming!
Bryan,
I thought it was deflategate?
Rollin
This is a time when we need to speak out in whatever format we can. Our planet is at dire risk. I feel like we are on a speeding train heading down a steep mountain, and I don’t know how to stop it. Thanks Bryan for linking nature and democracy!
Sorry but this whole episode requires a completely intact bullshit meter. American intelligence sources are inveterate liars and Trump is right at least when he says the sources here are like the ones that ended us up in the Iraq war. It almost appears that the Dems are trying to blame their loss on the Russians. They should be too ashamed of themselves to even appear in public! It was they who recklessly imposed a justly unpopular candidate, Hillary and thus stuck us with Trump. Maybe now the Lesser Evil strategy will be treated by voters to the scorn it deserves.
Thanks! Sad as it is this post made me smile.
Ah, thanks for the Siberian Jay, serves notice that there’s more to Russia than this particular crime.
Thank you. We all need to keeping pushing back — hard — and speaking out wherever we have a voice. If social media is the place, then so be it.