Many people, including myself, are more than dismayed at the direction of this country. There have been previous times when there was concern regarding the choice for President of the United States. I was less than thrilled when the American people replaced George H.W. Bush with Bill Clinton. I was appalled when Clinton was re-elected. I was also disgusted when Barack Obama was elected. But never sorry that either John McCain or Mitt Romney did not become President. In all these cases I thought the American people would pay a price for bad decisions, but the country would survive and at some point, things would change, as they always do.
But this time it is different. Not because of Donald Trump or even because of Joe Biden. It is rather than it seems so obvious that this election was literally stolen. The most difficult thing to believe is that Joe Biden really got 80 million votes. What we already know about the Dominion voting machines and Smartmatic software should give everyone pause. There are numerous reports that this is the same system used Venezuela. I have seen no one dispute that, just arrogant self-righteous pronouncements that this was the most secure election in our nation’s history. Do they really expect us to believe that? Do they even believe that?
It is obvious that someone has launched a serious cyber-attack on the U.S. By all accounts, this is beyond bad. The Cyber Infrastructure and Security Agency (CISA) said the following in an alert published Thursday:
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is aware of compromises of U.S. government agencies, critical infrastructure entities, and private sector organizations by an advanced persistent threat (APT) actor beginning in at least March 2020. This APT actor has demonstrated patience, operational security, and complex tradecraft in these intrusions. CISA expects that removing this threat actor from compromised environments will be highly complex and challenging for organizations.
CISA has determined that this threat poses a grave risk to the Federal Government and state, local, tribal, and territorial governments as well as critical infrastructure entities and other private sector organizations
It is impossible to reconcile this situation with the arrogant assertion by the former Director of CISA, Chris Krebs, that this was the most secure election in history. It is now more than obvious why Trump fired Krebs.
Some has described this as a Pearl Harbor level attack against the United States. I am not sure that is an exaggeration.
Several things are happening. The Pentagon halted briefing the Biden transition defense briefings. The DOD says that Acting Pentagon Defense Secretary asked for a one day pause and both teams agreed to a two week break over the holidays. One thing is sure, the Biden transition team will get no more briefing this year.
Nancy Pelosi received the COVID 19 vaccinate today. Shortly after that she postponed her weekly press conference for the second time. It was originally scheduled for 10:45 a.m., then postponed for 2:00 p.m., then postponed indefinitely. At 2:31 p.m. today the FBI began briefing GOP Minority Leader Keven McCarthy and Speaker Nancy Pelosi regarding Rep. Eric Swalwell’s relationship with Chinese Spy Christine (Fang) Fang. McCarthy has been demanding that briefing saying that Swalwell is a national security liability. Is that briefing a coincidence?
Sprawling hack of federal agencies spurs alarm in White House – POLITICO
Last Saturday The U.S. National Security Council (NSC) held an emergency meeting at the White House. The National Security Council is chaired by the President. Its regular attendees (both statutory and non-statutory) are the Vice President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defense, and the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the statutory military advisor to the Council, and the Director of National Intelligence is the intelligence advisor. The Chief of Staff to the President, Counsel to the President, and the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy are invited to attend any NSC meeting. The Attorney General and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget are invited to attend meetings pertaining to their responsibilities. The heads of other executive departments and agencies, as well as other senior officials, are invited to attend meetings of the NSC when appropriate.
The office of the Director of National Intelligence and U.S. Cyber Command are both involved in the investigation and this was described as a nation-state confrontation.
“The government suspects that the FireEye and agency hacks are connected and is now worried that “the same techniques … could have been leveraged against other agencies” because “everybody uses Microsoft products,” the U.S. official said.”
Trump is apparently scheduled to meet with Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller in the Oval office at 3:30 p.m. President Trump’s Executive Order on Foreign Interference in Our Elections is due today. There are unconfirmed reports that John Ratcliffe refused to sign the report because it did not include substantial allegations of direct interference by China in our elections. That report may not become public today, but it is certain that John Ratcliffe will update the President today. He may have already briefed Trump on this.
None of us know what is going on. We just know that the most serious people in this government are using terms like grave risk to the Federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial governments. We also know that this is discussed as a nation-state confrontation. It would be insane to underestimate this.
Prior to December 7, 1941, few Americans had any interest in participating in a foreign war. But, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, that changed overnight. This time, we have clearly been attacked, not with planes from a carrier, but rather with a far more serious weapon able to do incalculable damage. The U.S. Government will respond and none of us should underestimate the significance of that.
We do not know the extent, if any, to which this affected the election. But since if affected almost everything else, odds are it also impacted the election. If there is evidence that a foreign government hacked the results of a presidential election, and the American people are confronted with this, the results are likely to be similar to the response after Pearl Harbor or 9-11. Pearls of wisdom demand we don’t jump to conclusions, but they also demand we do not ignore the obvious nor the significance of events that are well documented.
TDM