Friday Fallout: Trump, Russia, and Women

So on the day when this happened:

‘Russia’s Senior-Most officials’ Ordered DNC Hack

It wasn’t low-level flunkies or some “400-pound” hacker, as Trump suggested. Top Kremlin officials directed the hacks on America’s political system, U.S. intelligence publicly said.

Shane Harris Nancy A. Youssef 10.07.16

The Obama administration has concluded that “Russia’s senior-most officials” ordered hackers to break into the computer networks of American political organizations in order “to interfere with the U.S. election process,” intelligence and security agencies said in a joint statement Friday.
Read more >>>>

Also this happened.

AP Top News

APNewsBreak: UN criticism of Trump draws Russian complaint

GENEVA (AP) — Russia lodged a formal complaint last month with the United Nations over a top U.N. official's condemnations of Donald Trump and some European politicians, an intervention that underscores the unusual links between the Republican presidential nominee and the Kremlin.
There is no evidence Trump sought Russia's assistance, or was even aware of the criticism by Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights.
Vitaly Churkin, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, told The Associated Press on Friday that he complained to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon about Zeid's remarks.
Read more  >>>>

Of course, Trump does not even need to request this kind of defense from Russia since it is clear that they are interfering and on whose behalf.
Hillary's campaign responded to the administration's announcement.

Hillary For America Statement On U.S. Government Formally Naming Russia Responsible For Election-Related Hacks

John Podesta, Chair of Hillary of America, released the following statement Friday in response to the U.S. government formally naming the Russian government as responsible for recent hacks intended to interfere with the U.S. presidential election:
“The world now knows, beyond the shadow of any doubt, that the hack of the Democratic National Committee was carried out by the Russian government in a clear attempt to interfere with the integrity of our elections. The only remaining question is why Donald Trump continues to make apologies for the Russians. Trump’s initial reaction to the hack in July was to invite further intrusions by the Russians. Even after he was reportedly briefed on the very findings that were just announced publicly by U.S. government officials, he stood on a debate stage one week ago and played dumb about Russia’s role in this hack. He has repeatedly praised Vladimir Putin, outlined a list of pro-Putin policies, and has done hundreds of millions of dollars of business with Russian interests. Even his own running mate has criticized Putin yet Trump continues to refuse. It should concern every American that Russia is willing to engage in such hostile acts in order to help Donald Trump become President of the United States. But even worse, Trump’s own actions suggests he welcomes the help. If he wants to reassure American voters, he must not only acknowledge and condemn Russia’s role in this outrageous intrusion against U.S. interests, but he must finally disclose the full extent of his ties to Russia and divest any Russian-linked assets.”

And certainly by now you have all heard about this.  We will leave what The Hill characterized as his "rare half-apology" out of this because it was no apology at all.  Rather, it was an attempt to wipe mud off himself and sling it at Bill Clinton.

October 07, 2016

Trump caught on hot mic in lewd conversation about women

By Jonathan Swan

In the leaked audio, apparently recorded while Trump was on a bus with former Access Hollywood host Billy Bush, Trump talks about trying — and failing — to have sex with an unnamed woman. He had been married to his wife Melania for a few months at the time of the conversation.

Read more >>>>

It is high time the media stopped treating Trump as any kind of serious or qualified candidate and this election cycle as if there were anything normal about it.  That any foreign power, much less Russia, would so boldly attempt to influence a U.S. election is outrageous enough.  We remember, however, that candidate Trump in fact invited them to hack U.S. accounts.  When anyone reminds him of this, he denies he said or meant it or plays the sarcasm card.

There is room for humor, to be sure. JFK was a witty, funny guy, but he's the one who stared down Khrushchev and the other guy blinked.  The job is not one for a stand-up comic, and the Oval Office is neither a locker room nor a frat house. Trump's affect is time and again inappropriate to the event.  His outreach to Putin is intolerable and his off-the-cuff comments about women are sleazy, disgusting, and despicable.

Ironic that our candidate, the most qualified to run perhaps ever, has to combat Trump's misogyny and sexism as well as antagonism from a foreign adversarial source favoring her opponent. How is this happening in this country?



Show Hillary you stand with her on her principles!

The Obama-Clinton Doctrine

I guess we all remember Sarah Palin holding forth on The Bush Doctrine (on which she was apparently completely unbriefed). In case you wondered about the doctrine of the current administration, the Legal Adviser to the State Department, Harold Koh, laid it out in a speech he delivered yesterday. He outlined the Obama-Clinton Doctrine as follows:

...an Emerging “Obama-Clinton Doctrine,” which is based on four commitments: to:

1. Principled Engagement;

2. Diplomacy as a Critical Element of Smart Power;

3. Strategic Multilateralism; and

4. the notion that Living Our Values Makes us Stronger and Safer, by Following Rules of Domestic and International Law; and Following Universal Standards, Not Double Standards.

As articulated by the President and Secretary Clinton, I believe the Obama/Clinton doctrine reflects these four core commitments. First, a Commitment to Principled Engagement: A powerful belief in the interdependence of the global community is a major theme for our President, whose father came from a Kenyan family and who as a child spent several years in Indonesia.
Second, a commitment to what Secretary Clinton calls “smart power”—a blend of principle and pragmatism” that makes “intelligent use of all means at our disposal,” including promotion of democracy, development, technology, and human rights and international law to place diplomacy at the vanguard of our foreign policy.
Third, a commitment to what some have called Strategic Multilateralism: the notion acknowledged by President Obama at Cairo, that the challenges of the twenty-first century “can’t be met by any one leader or any one nation” and must therefore be addressed by open dialogue and partnership by the United States with peoples and nations across traditional regional divides, “based on mutual interest and mutual respect” as well as acknowledgment of “the rights and responsibilities of [all] nations.”
And fourth and finally, a commitment to living our values by respecting the rule of law, As I said, both the President and Secretary Clinton are outstanding lawyers, and they understand that by imposing constraints on government action, law legitimates and gives credibility to governmental action. As the President emphasized forcefully in his National Archives speech and elsewhere, the American political system was founded on a vision of common humanity, universal rights and rule of law. Fidelity to [these] values” makes us stronger and safer. This also means following universal standards, not double standards. In his Nobel lecture at Oslo, President Obama affirmed that “[a]dhering to standards, international standards, strengthens those who do, and isolates those who don’t.” And in her December speech on a 21^st Century human rights agenda, and again two weeks ago in introducing our annual human rights reports, Secretary Clinton reiterated that “a commitment to human rights starts with universal standards and with holding everyone accountable to those standards, including ourselves.”

I just thought I would share that much. If you would like to read the rest of the speech, you can find it here.

The Obama Administration and International Law