Unshackled Trump and the Wikileaks Mystery

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The headline could be, “Republicans In Disarray.” The whole party is in meltdown today, and Donald Trump is declaring war on the GOP.

“Desite [sic] winning the second debate in a landslide (every poll), it is hard to do well when Paul Ryan and others give zero support!” Trump wrote on Twitter earlier Tuesday morning, adding an hour later that “our very weak and ineffective leader, Paul Ryan, had a bad conference call where his members went wild at his disloyalty.”

He kept it going, essentially declaring war on the GOP. “With the exception of cheating Bernie out of the nom the Dems have always proven to be far more loyal to each other than the Republicans!” Trump later tweeted, following up that blast, with, “Disloyal R’s are far more difficult than Crooked Hillary. They come at you from all sides. They don’t know how to win – I will teach them!”

The best part is that he has declared himself unshackled. No more nice.

They don’t make enough popcorn for this. Anyway, on to the Wikileaks Mystery.

Some Clinton emails hacked by Wikileaks surfaced that turned out to have been “doctored.” In the original email, Sidney Blumenthal sent an article from Newsweek to Hillary Clinton. The article, by Kurt Eichenwald, was reporting on accusations about Clinton and Benghazi. The Russian hacker who dealt with this email, possibly confused, attributed quotes from the Eichenwald article to Blumenthal. When put into Blumenthal’s mouth, the quotes appeared to be an admission that Clinton could have done something to stop the attacks and/or save ambassador Chris Stevens.

Kurt Eichenwald saw the Wikileaks version and realized what happened, as he wrote in “Dear Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, I Am Not Sidney Blumenthal.”

Eichenwald says that the doctored email appeared briefly on Sputnik, “the Russian online news and radio service established by the government-controlled news agency, Rossiya Segodnya.” And then he says,

Of course, this might be seen as just an opportunity to laugh at the incompetence of the Russian hackers and government press—once they realized their error, Sputnik took the article down. But then things got even more bizarre.

This false story was reported only by the Russian-controlled agency (a reference appeared in a Turkish publication, but it was nothing but a link to the Sputnik article). So how did Donald Trump end up advancing the same falsehood put out by Putin’s mouthpiece?

Yes, Donald Trump. Yesterday at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, PA, Trump repeated the allegations from the doctored email. This is from Breitbart:

Trump also referenced an email about Benghazi from Sidney Blumenthal, whom he called, “sleazy Sidney.”

“The attack was almost certainly preventable. Clinton was in charge of the State Department,” Trump stated, reading from his notes on the email. “If the GOP wants to raise that as a talking point against her, it is legitimate.”

Trump claimed she is now admitting they could have done something about Benghazi. The crowd booed in reaction and chanted, “Lock her up!”

Eichenwald wrote,

This is not funny. It is terrifying. The Russians engage in a sloppy disinformation effort and, before the day is out, the Republican nominee for president is standing on a stage reciting the manufactured story as truth. How did this happen? Who in the Trump campaign was feeding him falsehoods straight from the Kremlin? (The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.)

The Russians have been obtaining American emails and now are presenting complete misrepresentations of them—falsifying them—in hopes of setting off a cascade of events that might change the outcome of the presidential election. The big question, of course, is why are the Russians working so hard to damage Clinton and, in the process, aid Donald Trump? That is a topic for another time.

For now, though, Americans should be outraged. This totalitarian regime, engaged in what are arguably war crimes in Syria to protect its government puppet, is working to upend a democracy to the benefit of an American candidate who uttered positive comments just Sunday about the Kremlin’s campaign on behalf of Bashar al-Assad. Trump’s arguments were an incomprehensible explication of the complex Syrian situation, which put him right on the side of the Iranians and Syrians, who are fighting to preserve the government that is the primary conduit of weapons used against Israel.

So no, Mr. Putin, I’m not Sidney Blumenthal. And now that you have been exposed once again, get the hell out of our election. And, Mr. Trump, you have some explaining to do.

Did Putin’s boys forward the email to the Donald before they realized it was screwed up? Maybe, although Josh Marshall provides an alternative scenario.

News from Russian propaganda sources are pervasive in the alt-right/neo-Nazi web. As a secondary matter we know from Adrian Chen’s work that there are a decent number of faux ‘pro-Trump’ accounts on Twitter that are actually run from troll farms operated by Russian intelligence services. By whichever path, Russian propaganda is ubiquitous on the alt-right/racist web – particularly on Twitter, Reddit, 4chan and similar sites.

It happens that we know the Trump world is awash in the alt-right/neo-Nazi web. After all, that’s where all the retweeting of #WhiteGenocide accounts and the like comes from. So anything is possible. Perhaps there’s a more complex explanation. But the simplest one is that it’s organic. Russian propaganda stories from outlets like RT, Sputniknews and other similar sites spread freely on the alt-right/white supremacist web. And that’s where the Trump camp lives. So it’s entirely plausible that that’s why material that appears only on these Russian propaganda sites shows up so frequently in Trump’s speeches.

In other words, don’t worry. The Trump campaign isn’t infiltrated by Russian intelligence (probably). They’re just awash in neo-Nazi and white supremacist propaganda.

In other words, in this scenario some U.S. white supremacist found the doctored email on Sputnik before it was taken down and forwarded it to the Trump campaign.

Either way, after this it cannot be denied that Wikileaks and Julian Assange are working with Putin’s people to manipulate the election. However, many of the besotted die-hards on social media who believe Assange walks on water will continue to deny it, because they’re tools.

19 thoughts on “Unshackled Trump and the Wikileaks Mystery”

  1. In other words, don’t worry. The Trump campaign isn’t infiltrated by Russian intelligence (probably). They’re just awash in neo-Nazi and white supremacist propaganda.

    Oh well, that’s all right then.

    I don’t know whether to cry or laugh at this point.

  2. I love the GOP’s faux whining about t-TUMP’s saying out loud, what they’ve been all about since Nixon’s Southern Strategy.

    And now in mid-stream that viper of a party is yelling “OUCH” as that scorpion, t-RUMP, gives them a fatal dose!
    Hey, “he’s a scorpion.”
    But he’s ALL YOURS!!!
    (And, hopefully, won’t even be allowed to visit the Oval Office!).

  3. I am curious if there are legal consequence of this(Russian govt interference)? Is this legal for a US citizen to openly ask for support of a US adversary(or even foreign govt)?

    • Ajay — Trump has denied any relationship with the Russian government. So we can’t say he’s openly asked for such support. Whether he’s getting it indirectly is another matter. I know it’s illegal to take campaign contributions from foreign governments, but I don’t know if there is any law covering non-monetary help, such as oppo research.

  4. When I play connect the dots with this information, I keep coming up with very frightening images.  Is this some sort of twisted Halloween prank? 

  5. Raging bull? Actually raging bullshit is more appropriate. It’s kinda like the frankenstein monster got out of the lab.
    I guess we can all look forward to some good entertainment. I just wonder how raunchy Trump’s antics are going to get..
    I read a good closing statement in an article today.. “The GOP is going to have to carry their stillborn candidacy to term”

  7. Who thought t-RUM’ s “October Surprise” would be from t-RUMP himself, and help Hillary?!?!?!

    ROTFLMAO!!!!!

  9. There’s this really weird reality show – unreal actually – but the writers must be on drugs. There’s two candidates for President – one’s this old lady that almost nobody likes or trusts, but she’s the heroine of the soap opera. Her opponent is this perverted old bigot – in the story he owns the Miss Universe Paegent and walks backstage when the girls are dressing of undressed to stare at them and gets away with it because he’s richer than JR Ewing. There’s an unreal scene of a debate where the creepy guy, in an expensive suit is dry-humping the back of a tall chair standing behind the old lady who’s answering questions from the audience. The whole thing is bizarre – they should have filled out the character of the bad guy with some kind of policy. He’s so ignorant that he’s not believable – he hates Muslims & Mexicans and women and anyone who says “boo” to him. Nobody could become a candidate for a major party without any serious positions – the only positions this guy knows are from the Kama Sutra and I doubt he’s limber enough to get into most of them. Still, the drama is almost hypnotizing – they are blowing the drama by having her run away in the polls. Maybe they will suddenly do a reversal of fortunes ending on the eve of the election at which point the story will be a political “Night of the Living Dead” with the old guy as a zombie president. Anyway, entertainment has gone downhill while I was in prison.

  10. they are blowing the drama by having her run away in the polls.

    I disagree with that, Doug. They are increasing the Drama exponentially by adjusting the poll numbers in Hillary’s favor. Now it’s like Popeye breaking out his can of spinach to save the day. Trump has been unshackled . No more restraints to hold him back from being who he really is. We’ll get to see him in all his magnificence and splendor. The real Donald is now going to appear. Add to that his comment that Hillary is nasty, but he can be way more nastier then she could ever hope to be. That creates a potential for a drama like we’ve never witnessed before. It’s like hang on to your hat time!
    Trump has vowed — for what that’s worth — that he’s not going to lay down or except defeat without pulling the Repuglican party down around him..That, to me, sets up a stage on which the maximum amount of drama is about to occur. Move over Cody Jarrett.

  12. Doug, actual positions mean potential disagreement. Vagueness is your friend, especially on the rightwing side. Then imagination allows the candidate to be whatever each individual wishes.

  13. Thanks for the tip about Russian/Foreign hackers feeding the alt-right. It makes sense, in a horrible way: what better way to hasten the end of the US’ global hegemony/leadership than to fan the flames of hatred among the (well-armed!) reactionaries who naturally oppose any modernization. The brainless right-wingnuts have done more to damage our country than all the painfully sincere egghead lefties (aging children, I am one) who got fingered (ouch) by McCarthy & Hoover combined.

    This is a REAL existential threat to our democracy/Republic.

    Pure speculation: China is in cahoots with Russia on this. I don’t blame either of them for trying, but damn, they’re playing with fire.

  14. but damn, they’re playing with fire.
    Maybe so, but when it comes to manipulating Trump and the simpletons who adore him..they’re playing with putty.

  15. Swami,
    Yeah – that putty is plastic explosives:
    Common plastic (as the morons of the soil) explosives, include Semtex and C-4.

  16. There’s some interesting blogging today about what the election means.

    1) Trump will crash and burn.

    2) He will still get 35% of the vote – even after the GOP abandoned him.

    3) Those republicans in office who quit Trump can’t associate themselves with a looser who will crash and burn BADLY, but Trump’s loyalists will blame the GOP for Trump’s loss. Ergo, the GOP officials are damned either way. (Trump isn’t important – but his supporters won’t evaporate on November 9. This mob, not Trump is the problem.)

    4) Trump loyalists in 2018 will turn on the GOP establishment post-defeat.

    5) Sooooo does the GOP beg forgiveness from the Trump crowd in 2017 and line up behind racism, sexism and xenophobia – knowing the formula brought them to ruin this election OR do they expel the far right and try to make it up with right-leaning independents? Or are there other options?

  17. For what it’s worth, botching that email suggests that the Russians aren’t working all that closely with Assange; or he would have corrected them, in defense of his brand. But sure, he gave them the info, which they distorted.

    Wow what a zigzag. From Clinton to Assange to the Russians to the alt-right to Trump. A game of telephone, with errors along the way.

  18. I wonder if Trump can unshackle himself from his sordid past of sexual improprieties. It seems the knowledge his many forays into adulterous behavior is beginning to come to the surface. How does that expression go? That which is done in the darkness shall be revealed in the light? He’s a beast! A lecher who wantonly abuses women by preying on their vulnerabilities.
    What a horror he is with his Gingrichesque hypocrisy of accusing Bill Clinton of sexual immorality while his own words convicted him of adulterous intent at a minimum. So much for the sanctity of marriage, huh? ” I hit on her like a bitch… she was married.” Just words..I know..just words no value!
    He mentioned that she was married to downplay his getting shot down. If they’re married they’re harder to bag so it kinda softens the rejection on not being able to score and increases the satisfaction of knowing you’ve taken something precious from another mans domain. Trump is an immoral goat.
    One thing I can agree on with Trump.. He will be “limping” across the finish line if he does manage to finish the race.

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