Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/765357
GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIALBOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@ redbluffdailynews.com Fax: 530-527-9251 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 728Main St., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS Thelatestintelligencerevelationsabout Russia's cyberpush for Donald Trump are so persuasive that even congressional Re- publican leaders have been compelled to take notice. There will indeed be investiga- tions and hearings, in both chambers. Itappears,fornowanyway, that they actually view this unprecedented national secu- rity breach as nearly as im- portant as Hill- ary's private server. Assuming that Republi- cans don't try to spin the whole thing into obliv- ion, assuming that they really intend to demonstrate that they're not being played for saps, and assuming that they do intend to fully probe the relationship between Trump and the ex-KGB thug, here are the big questions they might want to ask: 1. What did Trump know and when did he know it? Prior to the election, intel- ligence briefers told Trump that Russia was interfering in our election, but he rejected the intel, claiming publicly that it might just be some 400-pound hacker some- where. On what rational ba- sis did he have reason to dis- believe the intelligence warn- ings? In other words, what did Trump know and why did he choose not to know it? 2. What are the full extent of Trump's financial ties to Russia? As his son Donald Jr. said in 2008, "Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia." But we still don't know the full extent — there have long been suspicions that he owes money to Russian oligarchs — because Trump never pro- vided a full accounting of his business interests. Will the Republicans finally demand that he fork over all his tax returns? 3. Why was Russia so mo- tivated, via its hail of pro- paganda, to help get Trump elected? Did Trump start echoing Russia's positions — soften our NATO commitments; soften or end our economic sanctions — because he sin- cerely believes those posi- tions, or because he has been steered by the Russian apolo- gists in his circle? 4. And what about those apologists? They include: -Michael Flynn, the incom- ing national security adviser, a regular contributor to Vlad- imir Putin's RT propaganda network, and a paid speech- making attendee at RT's 10th anniversary dinner last De- cember -Carter Page, a backstage foreign policy adviser who has business dealings in Rus- sia -Paul Manafort, the cam- paign manager who was jet- tisoned after he was outed as a paid advisor to a pro-Putin leader in Ukraine -Rex Tillerson, the secre- tary of state nominee, a foe of our anti-Putin sanctions, and winner of a Putin "friendship" award. What's the current full extent of their financial ties to Russia? Will the Republicans subpoena their records? 5. Is there any evidence of pre-election collusion be- tween Trump advisors and Kremlin officials? If not, what's the substance of their post-election commu- nications? Are major shifts in American policy in the works — stuff that's detrimental to American interests? Stuff we don't know about? The latter questions may be the most important of all. Even if Russian's pro-Trump cyberpush wasn't pivotal in getting Trump elected, Russia got the president it wanted. A president who (for all we know) may be finan- cially or otherwise compro- mised to act in Russia's in- terests at the expense of ours. As Eric Edelmen and David J. Kramer, two George W. Bush foreign policy offi- cials, warn: "Without U.S. leader- ship keeping the Europeans united against Putin, West- ern resolve in the face of Rus- sian aggression will crum- ble. Before even moving to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. and gaining the authority to lift U.S. sanctions on Russia, Trump could produce a rad- ical change in policy toward Moscow. Such a change, how- ever, would not make Amer- ica, the West or the world great again. But it could trig- ger the unraveling of the alli- ances and institutional struc- tures that made the U.S. and its European partners great in the past." All told, the pro-Republican columnist Jennifer Rubin said it best yesterday: "You would think it would be obvious that Russian efforts to select America's president through cyber-weaponized revelations may be the most important election story — ever. This is warfare of an entirely dif- ferent sort, one aimed at the heart of democracy." Which prompts my biggest question of all: 6. Do congressional Repub- licans have the fortitude and patriotism to take this probe wherever it leads? DickPolmanisthenational political columnist at NewsWorks/WHYY in Philadelphia (newsworks. org/polman) and a "Writer in Residence" at the University of Pennsylvania. Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.com. Dick Polman Six things we know about the Trump-Russia connection Much recent news involves issues and topics not person- ally witnessed by this or any writer but that emerge from the hidden realms of CIA, Russian (and non-Russian) hacking and—we must maintain an open mind—leaks from domestic whistleblowers. News broadcasts have glossed over essential aspects of the deeply controversial question of whether said Russian hack- ers were intending to hurt Hill- ary Clinton and help Donald Trump. I'm deeply skeptical. Several political cartoons and captioned photos provide perspective: A picture of former NBC anchor Brian Williams, of numerous journalistic mis- adventures, says, "Stop read- ing fake news, because we don't like competition." A picture of Comedy Central's Jon Stewart carried the caption, "The same people outraged by 'fake news' listened to this guy for news for decades." A stern-faced, gesticulat- ing Emperor Obama (remem- ber that he said only an em- peror or king could set aside immigration law unilaterally, and then just went ahead and did it) is shown pronouncing, "I have ordered the CIA to investi- gate whether Russia gamed the election as much as CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, and MSNBC." (News- week's Evan Thomas, if I recall, said in 2004 that media bias for Kerry would be worth 5 to 10 points in the presidential vote.) Obama says in another one, "Russia was doing things trying to influence our election," while Putin says, "You mean like stag- ing riots with paid protest- ers pretending to be outraged Americans?" A caption for the last one I'll describe says, "Here we see Donald Trump prom- ising special favors for Vladi- mir Putin if he's elected," except it is actually a photo of Barack Obama quietly urging Russia's Medvedev to convey just that message to Putin. One way to encapsulate a lot of the hypocrisy and irony of the current situation is to go back to October 2014, when the White House and State Dept. computers went mysteriously silent, a silence noticed by jour- nalists, mainstream or not. Queries went unanswered; sus- picions, however, were scarcely uttered in the legacy news me- dia. It was ultimately disclosed that Russian hacking was be- hind the computers' malfunc- tions. Readers may have little or no recollection of the blatant and aggressive attack that occurred. How, you might ask, could an actual invasive hack by an ad- versary like Russia not result in massive, incessant and prob- ing questions by the news me- dia? Well, you can look at the calendar, as well as remember that the primary function of said news media is to prevent the voters from learning things that reflect badly on Demo- crats. Congressional midterms were only weeks away and it be- hooved the "palace guard" me- dia to take the (Star Wars line) approach that "these are not the national security failures the voters are looking for." In "The great Russia-hacked- the-election con," Thomas Lif- son (Americanthinker.com) refers to the "reporting" on Obama's and Congressional in- vestigations into "Russian hack- ing of our election, and that the intelligence community 'con- firms' that it happened. Yet there is not yet any evidence that Russia hacked the election or was responsible for the DNC email hacks. None. "When self-interested peo- ple and their media allies pro- claim something is true, and form a chorus that drowns out any other views, I suspect a con. It's so easy for the Left, since it controls education and the media, to sell any tale it wishes….Most people will sim- ply fall in line because it is too much trouble and risky to dis- pute the 'received truth' by the power elite." Writer Glenn Greenwald sim- ilarly debunked the media rush to proclaim fact-free conclu- sions as if they were certainties, in "Anonymous Leaks to the WashPost About the CIA's Rus- sia Beliefs Are No Substitute for Evidence." Back to Lifson, "My own sus- picion is that an insider at the DNC leaked the emails. There is as much evidence for the pub- lic to see supporting that as- sertion as there is for the claim that the Russians did it. Where is the skepticism? The Russian hacking scenario is an excuse for the Democrats to explain away their loss without blaming themselves or their candidate, and it serves to delegitimize the next president—a bad thing for the country." Nothing in the now-con- ventional-wisdom narrative is proven factually, with docu- ments or testimony. What is be- coming evident is that we have a virtual "liars club"—the Rus- sians, the CIA, the Democrats and the news media—holding a convention to award the prize for the biggest, most convo- luted, and brazen lie. I'll describe it thusly: The CIA traffics in the realm of the unknown and often the un- knowable. Most Americans serving in our intelligence agencies are patriotic defend- ers of our citizens and nation in places, by means and times ut- terly unpleasant and with only the grayest of guidelines. However, ensconced in the safety of offices and build- ings are CIA employees im- bued with political avarice and the means to put juicy in- sider stuff forward to report- ers happy to access the scoop, and impress their journalist buddies. They have every mo- tive to exercise power and, in this case, continue the Clin- ton/Obama campaign by sur- reptitious means to undercut President-elect Donald Trump. It's the same motivation be- hind the shameful attacks on electors, violent placard-wav- ing "Not my president" loons, and Soros-funded progressive war rooms. "We are a country based on laws. And we've had hot, con- tested elections going back to the very beginning, but one of our hallmarks has always been that we accept the outcomes of our elections." Hillary Clinton's words now apply to Trump hat- ers and deniers; as of Jan. 20, it's President Trump, together with a Republican Congress, calling the shots and setting the agenda. Don Polson has called Red Bluff home since 1988. He can be reached by e-mail at donplsn@ yahoo.com. The way I see it The Liars Club Convention Even if Russian's pro-Trump cyberpush wasn't pivotal in getting Trump elected, Russia got the president it wanted. A president who (for all we know) may be financially or otherwise compromised to act in Russia's interests at the expense of ours. Cartoonist's take Dick Polman Don Polson StateandNational Assemblyman James Gallagher, 2060 Talbert Drive, Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 895-4217, http:// ad03.asmrc.org/ Senator Jim Nielsen, 2634 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 879-7424, senator.nielsen@sen- ate.ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown, State Capital Building, Sacramento 95814, 916 445-2841, fax 916 558-3160, governor@governor.ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug LaMalfa, 507 Cannon House Office Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202 225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415 393-0707, fax 415 393-0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, 1700 Montgomery St., San Francisco 94111, 510 286-8537, fax 202 224-0454 Local Tehama County Supervisors, 527-4655 District 1, Steve Chamblin, Ext. 3015 District 2, Candy Carlson, Ext. 3014 District 3, Dennis Garton, Ext. 3017 District 4, Bob Williams, Ext. 3018 District 5, Burt Bundy, Ext. 3016 Red Bluff City Manager, Richard Crabtree, 527- 2605, Ext. 3061 Corning City Manager, Kristina Miller, 824-7033 Your officials OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, December 20, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6