monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Police Suspect Netanyahu Took Gifts Worth Hundreds of Thousands of Shekels - and That's Just the Preview
If the evidence is true, it would mean Netanyahu heedlessly fell in the same hole that has swallowed his predecessor. But the real show is still waiting in the wings: The hidden affair that sources say will rattle Israel

He’s Making a List
Trump is more paranoid and dangerous than Nixon.

...But there are two key differences that set Trump apart from his predecessor in paranoia. First, his soul is sicker by miles than Nixon’s. And second, the surveillance apparatus he is about to inherit is far scarier than the one available to Nixon.

“Over the past two decades, we’ve witnessed the building of the greatest, most pervasive surveillance apparatus and security state that humanity has ever seen,” says Jon Stokes, co-founder of the news site Ars Technica and author of Inside the Machine. “Now we are about to hand over that entire apparatus to a paranoid, score-settling sociopath whose primary obsession seems to be with crushing his personal enemies.”

Today the government can monitor virtually every form of communication, including the contents of emails, phone calls, online searches, and a host of personal data. Barack Obama, of course, has the same tools at his disposal; indeed, he presided over their construction and expansion. Perhaps it’s no wonder that there’s been no public uprising against this new surveillance state; it’s been in the hands of a president who is about as far removed from obsessive score-settling as anyone could conceivably be. Besides, our system of constitutional checks and balances is supposed to prevent individual officials from going rogue. “If men were angels,” James Madison observed, “no government would be necessary.”

Yesterday, we briefly discussed the dangers evident in a President who regards vengeance as a necessary and enjoyable part of gaining and maintaining power and stature.

Asked late Saturday about Russian hacking allegations and his cybersecurity plans, Trump told reporters that “no computer is safe” and that, for intelligence officials, “hacking is a very hard thing to prove.”

“You want something to really go without detection, write it out and have it sent by courier,” he said as he entered a New Year’s Eve party at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort.

“I think that computers have complicated lives very greatly,” Trump said earlier last week. He tweets prolifically but says he rarely uses any other communications technology more advanced than the telephone. “The whole age of computer has made it where nobody knows exactly what’s going on. We have speed, we have a lot of other things, but I’m not sure you have the kind of security that you need.”

“You want something to really go without detection, write it out and have it sent by courier,” he said as he entered a New Year’s Eve party at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort.

“I think that computers have complicated lives very greatly,” Trump said earlier last week. He tweets prolifically but says he rarely uses any other communications technology more advanced than the telephone. “The whole age of computer has made it where nobody knows exactly what’s going on. We have speed, we have a lot of other things, but I’m not sure you have the kind of security that you need.”

Since President George W. Bush moved to develop a comprehensive national cybersecurity policy after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the federal government has made a top priority of preserving the integrity of the public- and private-sector computer networks that enable modern commerce and society.

Trump delivered a campaign address in October that deemed cybersecurity “a major priority for both the government and the private sector” and said that cyberattacks from both state and non-state actors “constitute one of our most critical national security concerns.”

But the U.S. intelligence community’s determination that Russia engaged in a state-sponsored hacking effort aimed at electing Trump has prompted the president-elect to openly question the reliability of that assessment while simultaneously taking aim at the broader notion of cybersecurity.

Experts said Sunday that Trump’s comments and his handling of the Russian hacking allegations could embolden foreign hackers and undermine the U.S. government’s ability to respond to them.

Michael Sulmeyer, a former Defense Department policy adviser who directs the cybersecurity project for the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, referred to one of Trump’s earliest efforts — during a presidential debate in September — to cast doubt on allegations of Russian interference on his behalf.

“This is not some issue about a 400-pound hacker in a bedroom who might be mischievous,” Sulmeyer said. “These are real threats to our country, and the concerning part for me is to see how this issue has become politicized and made partisan.”

As President, improving cybersecurity will be an immediate and top priority for my Administration.


One of the very first things I will do is to order a thorough review of our cyber defenses and weaknesses, including all vital infrastructure.


Cyber-attacks from foreign governments, especially China, Russia, and North Korea along with non-state terrorist actors and organized criminal groups, constitute one of our most critical national security concerns.

"It's been the privilege of my life to serve as your President. I look forward to standing with you as a citizen. Happy New Year everybody."

"Happy New Year to all, including to my many enemies and those who have fought me and lost so badly they just don't know what to do. Love!"

[T]hrough his tumultuous transition, Trump has made little attempt at national reconciliation. At his post-election rallies, he has continued to launch sweeping denunciations of the news media; he’s regularly directed disparaging tweets toward voices critical of him (an Indiana union leader, Bill Clinton, the cast of Broadway’s Hamilton) and belittled the intelligence community’s conclusions about Russian hacking; he’s made the inflammatory and unfounded accusation that “millions of people … voted illegally”; and he’s claimed “a historic electoral landslide victory” – even though his electoral college margin ranked in the bottom fourth of elections to date, and even though he lost the popular vote by more votes than any winner ever. […]

Simultaneously, Trump has appointed a Cabinet and White House staff that braid the competing factions of the Republican Party, but offer virtually no outreach to voters beyond them.

Here's a really good 8 minute mini-documentary from Vox on the Israeli settlements in the West Bank
http://www.vox.com/2016/9/19/12929342/israeli-settlements-explained