monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Democracy continues its disturbing retreat

More than half the countries in the latest update of a democratic-health index saw their scores decline

[The defendents] engaged in operations primarily intended to communicate derogatory information about Hillary Clinton, to denigrat other candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and to support Bernie Sanders and then-candidate Donald Trump

From an outline of instruction to trolls Specialist were instructed post content that focused on "politics in the USA" and to "use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump - we support them).

[One] specialist was criticized for having a "low number of posts dedicated to criticizing Hillary Clinton" and was told "it is imperative to intensify criticizing Hillary Clinton in future posts

[The defendents] engaged in operations primarily intended to communicate derogatory information about Hillary Clinton, to denigrat other candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and to support Bernie Sanders and then-candidate Donald Trump

My twin

It is becoming apparent to me that a great number of Repukes, especially leadership, have made group decisions to ignore, or at least minimize the Russian interference.

in Friday’s indictment of 13 Russians for election interference, we read:

Quote:

Defendants and their co-conspirators also used false U.S. personas to ask real U.S. persons to participate in the “Florida Goes Trump” rallies. Defendants and their co-conspirators asked certain of these individuals to perform tasks at the rallies. For example, Defendants and their co-conspirators asked one U.S. person to build a cage on a flatbed truck and another U.S. person to wear a costume portraying Clinton in a prison uniform.

Is that something - Russia?

“[Putin] said he absolutely did not meddle in our election. He did not do what they are saying he did,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Hanoi following a meeting with Putin on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Danang.

Asked directly if he believed Putin, Trump suggested he was keen to move on to other issues. “Look,” he said, “I can’t stand there and argue with him. I would rather have him get out of Syria, to be honest with you. I would rather … get to work with him on the Ukraine.”

But moments later, Trump circled back to the issue of meddling, saying that Putin has repeatedly denied any involvement. “Every time he sees me he says, ‘I didn’t do that,’ and I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it,” the president said.

have nothing to do with the Russian hacking of podesta's and DNC's emails.

...some interesting stuff about the connections between the Russian bot account sites....