Why not protest FBI - Demand Release of Trump's Entanglement Files

For all the protests I read about after Trump’s election, I don’t recall hearing anything indicating that those protests rose above venting, that's a big shame.  

What we need is protesting with a determined purpose - 

a reasoned legitimate demand. 

In front of the FBI and the CIA 

and where ever else needed, 

to drive home the case that We The People 

want the Trump’s Files released!  

We The People have a right to learn about 

all of Trump’s entanglements !  

NOW BEFORE THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE MEETS!

This is for keeps!

Democracy Use It or Lose It!

The following is a collection of the articles I've lifted quotes from, I have also included links to their full stories.  I hope this collection will help inform.  Feel free to copy and pass along.  CC

December 11, 2016:

Trump vs. Congress on Russian hacking

Senators Want Investigation Into Russian Election Hacking

CIA At War With FBI – Over Trump

Intelligence figures fear Trump reprisals over assessment of Russia election role

December 10, 2016:

Dem congressman: Electoral College has 'right' to weigh Russian hacking

Mr. Trump responds to CIA report of Russian Hacking  ** UPDATED **

Schumer calls for full investigation by Congress of Russian interference in U.S. elections

It’s looking more and more like the election was swung by the FBI in virtual ‘alliance with Putin’

KRUGMAN: Trump will turn America into an 'all-out kleptocracy' like Russia and Ukraine

The Russian Hack Cracked?

How Russian Hackers Can Blackmail Donald Trump—and the GOP

Calls Grow For A New Presidential Election To Be Held After Russia Meddled To Help Trump

Ex-CIA Operative Wants an Election Re-Do Amid Reports of Russian Interference

June 20, 2016:

Is the Kremlin Readying for a Trump Administration?

FBI and US Representative contact links.  

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Dem congressman: Electoral College has 'right' to weigh Russian hacking

By Kyle Cheney 12/10/16 

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/electoral-college-russian-hack-david-cicilline-232469

… Cicilline appears to be the first member of Congress and the highest-ranking elected official in the country to endorse the notion that electors aren’t simply rubber stamps for their states’ popular vote. Earlier Saturday, he retweeted a Rhode Island-based national security expert who argued that the intelligence community “must brief electoral college about Russia before vote.”

Cicilline’s comments come amid the explosive determination by the U.S. intelligence community that Russia interfered in the presidential election in support of Donald Trump. Trump’s transition team has forcefully denied the conclusion.

The Non-Expert Problem - Why We Can Be Sure About CO2 Science.

A List of CO2 Science Dependent Modern Marvels proving climate scientists know what they are talking about.

Recently I got sucked back into my real passion, defending serious climate science against the cynical malicious lie dependent attacks it's been under for decades.  It was an odd exposition by Dilbert's Scott Adams aptly titled, "The Non-Expert Problem and Climate Change Science."  Although rather than discussing the silliness of under-informed non-experts thinking they are smarter than real experts, Adams launches into a truly delusional attack on the validity of serious scientists and their work.  It wasn't a great surprise to find that Adams seems to be a Trump supporter, thus it explains his easy disconnect from objective evidence and facts when they doesn't suit his paranoid outlook.

Besides writing my own review, "Profiles in Self-delusion - Dilbert's Scott Adams," I also participated in the discussion over there and was again amazed at how many people can in total seriousness claim that there's no valid evidence that CO2 causes our current global warming.

As one of the climate science non-experts, (although with pretty near 50 years of interest and active learning under my belt, I like to think I understand it better than your average bear), still how do I know that I haven't been lied to for the past fifty years?  How do I, a man who is incapable of comprehending their formulas or the details of their climate models, be so certain that what they are telling me is true?

Well it comes down to acknowledging reality.  On two levels, for one, having listened to easily over a hundred scientists giving talks about their work, I know that they are full-spectrum skeptics.  They put themselves under as sharp a microscope as they do others.  It is a huge active community of intelligent competing individuals always checking and cross checking each other's work.  It is the best humans are capable of, sure beats basing one's beliefs on personal Faith and then bending all facts to fit those personal beliefs.

The second level is the physical reality of being able to master one's numbers and understanding to practical purposes.  I believe it is tragic how many citizens don't have the first clue that our precise CO2 science was acquired by Air Force scientists, working independently from many countries, foremost USA, Australia, Russia and others.  Everyone came up with the same results - that ought to tell a skeptic something!

Of course, there is also the physical reality of what we are observing throughout our planet.

Even more telling is that fundamental understanding out of which all other Climate Science flows, has been transformed into an incredible number of modern marvels that would be utterly impossible if the scientists were bluffing it.  Here, let me show you with a reprint of something I put together a while back.

This post is an interesting sort of one way collaborative effort.  
You see, over the years I've communicated with a number of scientists and grads.  
Asking straight forward questions and often receiving informative replies.  I try not to over do my welcome, after all these are very busy people with more important things to do.

But for this post I sent out a grand shout to a number of my correspondence pals and received more responses than I expected including some informative surprises for me. 

I have taken great liberty slicing and dicing their responses. Rewriting some, leaving other quotes untouched and giving all of it some order.

I mention this because I want to be clear the following List of "CO2 science dependent" modern marvels is not my own cleverness and I want to send out a big Thank You! to my informed anonymous heroes!  

Also see: February 21, 2016

Archive, Hanscom AFB Atmospheric Studies, 
Cambridge Research Lab

http://whatsupwiththatwatts.blogspot.com/2016/02/archive-usaf-atmospheric-studies-afcrl.html

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The increase in atmospheric concentration of CO2 since preindustrial times is a given. Understand that the radiative physics of greenhouse gases are very well-understood.

Consider heat seeking missiles flying through different altitudes searching for a heat source who's signature is changing with altitude.  In order to program the computer, the programmer must know how to accurately compensate for the changing signature.  It requires a complete knowledge of the radiative properties of all the gases in the atmosphere, or all that hardware is for naught.

{Incidentally, there is not one contrarian "theory" or challenge to the physics that hasn't been looked at by informed individuals.  You just have to poke around, you'll find that contrarian errors, omissions, and falsifications have been clearly explained.      
 http://www.skepticalscience.com/argument.php?f=taxonomy

Profiles in Self-delusion - Dilbert’s Scott Adams

The cartoonist responsible for the “Dilbert” strip has decided to expand his reach into writing on climate science.  His first endeavor is such an excellent example of the self delusional mind doing it’s best to rationalize and embrace an avoidance of fundamental reality that I’ve decide to make a case study of it.

Victor Venema at VariableVariablity.blogspot.com has already written an interesting fairly detailed rebuttal at “Scott Adams: The Non-Expert Problem and Climate Change Science” and I recommend it because Victor, in keeping with his serious scientific sensibilities, offers Scott Adams’ the benefit of the doubt and takes the time to explain why Adams’ claims are misleading.

However, Scott Adams’ words convince me that his is nothing more than another cynical con game utilizing well worn tactics of strategic denial.  His exercise had nothing to do with an honest person trying to constructively explain his misgivings in an effort at better understanding. 

In this review I intent to focus on examining his disingenuous contrivances. 

First off please notice, rather than focusing on reviewing climate science fundamentals and known facts, Adams distracts with ‘slight of phrasing’ to draw the discussion away from where it needs to go, all the while striving to surreptitiously inoculate his audience with distrust and confusion at every turn.

The Non-Expert Problem and Climate Change Science, by Scott Adams

December 5th, 2016 - tagged: #trump, #climate science

It seems to me that a majority of experts could be wrong whenever you have a pattern that looks like this

1. A theory has been “adjusted” in the past to maintain the conclusion even though the data has changed. For example, “Global warming” evolved to “climate change” because the models didn’t show universal warming.

REJECT the Russian Obligate Trump - a national security threat

It’s official Russia played a big role, quite probably the decisive role, in electing Donald Trump President of the United States (incidentally, by garnering 2.6 million less votes than Hillary Clinton despite various serious voter suppression actions by Republicans.)  

Citizens with a sense of history must realize our America is experiencing a hostile take over attempt.  Let’s get real, Putin is amoral and absolutely ruthless and he has set his sights on America - and Trump is his man.

The only ones standing between Putin and success are We The American People standing strong and demanding heroic action from our Democratic Representatives! - We need to flood our elected Representatives, give them the public support that strength’s those weak spines.  If you love your country and don’t think its half as bad a Trump is trying to brainwash us into believing -  then it is your duty to get involved.  

Remember Trump does not become President-Elect until after the Electoral College meets December 19th.  The Electoral College system was put in place precisely for this kind of extreme circumstance, such as being defrauded on our election process.

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Here’s What Has To Happen 

Before December 19th

Roger Wolfson | 12/4/2016 | Attorney, writer

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/roger-wolfson/heres-what-has-to-happen_b_13420246.html

 Www.asktheelectors.org is a simple tool to reach out to electors directly. 

Sign a petition at Change.org, and share it on social media.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EZFBB-MntE

euronews (in English)

Calling out truthout.org

After an irritating couple days long empty exchange with an editor at truthout.org I realized he offered me an excellent opportunity to highlight one of many reasons the progressive movement is so good at losing.  

You see, Greg Palast spent a lot of time and effort putting together a well written concise report for TruthOut.org: “The No-BS Inside Guide to the Presidential Vote Recount”  It was posted November 30th, based on research and interviews with Robert Fitrakis, lead lawyer of the Green Party recount effort.  

No doubt it required monetary investment and TruthOut.org deserves renumeration, I have no argument with that.  But, it is also worth considering that some articles are more important than others.  Consider timing.  Today we have a newly aroused public, who is under informed and thirsty for information.

  

Palast’s article is of particular civic interest:  

* Who imagined that nearly 3 million votes get shelved and ignored in a typical Presidential election?  He explains it.

* Issues with verifying that vote counts are accurately transferred from one computer to other tabulating computer?  There are some.  

* What’s the story behind Trump’s claim of millions of multiple voters?  Oh yeah, this one is a wonderful example of creating fiction, because the reality don’t suit one. 

* What are “Placebo” Ballots?  

*Revelations about the abysmal track record of Mail-In Ballots? 

*Who’s making money, or not, off the recount effort?  

And so on.

In this time when We The People need to learn how to re-exert ourselves, the wider public has a real need for this sort of education about what's really going on with our elections and voter counts!

Democratic Senators and Representatives and state level Representatives can only stand fast against the coming assault if they have demonstrable grassroots support like never before.  How can that happen without an informed aroused electorate? 

TruthOut.org does some awesome investigative work, but they need to do a better job of broadcasting it !

Presidential Vote Recount - Truthout.org reports

Since Truthout.org has refused to entertain my requests for permission to repost this article in its entirety, I have decided to engage in a little civic disobedience in order to make the point that it’s time for such enlightened progressives and their organizations to get over their petty turf battles, we got bigger problems to worry about! 

After all it is no exaggeration to say that USA’s democracy has been placed under its most extreme existential threat, short of the Civil War.  (Frighteningly, there are strong elements within the Trump camp that actually talk like they want to foment a new civil war, but I digress.)  For the details to why I’ve chosen to do this please read my introduction, which includes an index to Greg Palast's extensive work.

_________________________

The No-BS Inside Guide 

to the Presidential Vote Recount

By Greg Palast

Truthout | News Analysis

November 23, 2016

There's been so much complete nonsense since I first broke the news that the Green Party would file for a recount of the presidential vote, I am compelled to write a short guide to flush out the BS and get to just the facts, ma’am.

Nope, They're Not Hunting for Russian Hackers

To begin with, the main work of the recount hasn't a damn thing to do with finding out if the software programs for the voting machines have been hacked, whether by Putin's agents or some guy in a cave flipping your vote from Hillary to The Donald.

The Green team does not yet even have the right to get into the codes. But the question of flipped votes is not the core of the work.

The Ballots in the Electoral "Dumpster"

The nasty little secret of US elections is that we don't count all the votes.

For more original Truthout election coverage, check out our election section, "Beyond the Sound Bites: Election 2016."

Demand January 3rd - Vote on Merrick Garland's nomination!

Democrats have one last chance to return some checks and balances into our American political system before the Trump vandals arrival with their determination to dismantle much of American's most valued protections and advances. Think I'm exaggerating? Then you haven't been paying attention to who Trump's filling his Cabinet with (and here).

Senate Republicans pulled a historically unprecedented stunt to simply deny (the across the board highly regarded moderate) Merrick Garland a hearing for the past year. On January 3rd, while the Senate is temporarily in Democratic hands, please vote to confirm Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Trump and his oligarch pals already have grand plans in store for a right-wing reactionary Supreme Court.  Are We The People going to simply sit by and acquiesce to these belligerent political bullies?  When are we going to grow some backbone and fight back - reasoned, rational, but firm!    

The Republican Congress have made clear they want to lock up the Supreme Court with a packed house of right wing reactionaries - ready to put the seal on Koch's Transformation of America's Democracy into the Corporation of Amerika - and yes, our democracy is in precisely this serious an existential crisis - the likes of which America hasn't experienced since the civil war.  

DailyKos is circulating a petition that I'm featuring in this post along with information and quotes from a number of article that offer greater detail for the curious.  

Obama Can and Should Put Merrick Garland on the Supreme Court

By David Dayen | November 16, 2016 |  NewRepublic.com

Can Merrick Garland Still Become Supreme Court Justice? Democrats Have A Few Loopholes At Their Disposal

By Maya Parthasarathy |  December 7, 2016 | Bustle.com

As Donald Trump Falters, Democrats Plan to Press Fight for Supreme Court

By Alan Rapport  |  AUG. 19, 2016 | Washington DC | NewYorkTimes.com

Why the Senate Should Vote on Merrick Garland’s Nomination Now

Commentary by Mark Kende | June 21, 2016 | Fortune.com

Democrats Keep Pressure on Garland Supreme Court Nomination

Michael Bowman  |  March 30, 2016 | VOA News.com 

FYI  - This is for keeps - America, it's your move.  Democracy Use It Or Lose It !

Trump's 21 potential court nominees are overwhelmingly white, male and from red states

Richard Wolf | USA TODAY | December 2, 2016

President-elect Donald Trump's 21 potential nominees to the Supreme Court -- the people he has said he will choose from, not just to replace Justice Antonin Scalia but for any other seats that fall vacant -- are straight out of conservative central casting.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/12/01/donald-trump-supreme-court-21-nominees-list-nomination/93964888/

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Sign the petition to Joe Biden and Senate Democrats: Confirm Merrick Garland to Supreme Court on January 3

https://www.dailykos.com/campaigns/petitions/sign-the-petition-to-joe-biden-and-senate-democrats-confirm-merrick-garland-to-supreme-court-on-january-3rd?source=20161207sp3