Am I the only one having a hard time keeping up with all the news?

[AgadorSparticus]

It just never ends. And there is so much of it. Makes my head spin. I think I can do it if I didnt have this pesky thing called, work. And laundry...and dinner...and dishes.

[Wounded Bear]

1. Understood...

But if I could only follow one story, it would be the Russian connection. Most of the tweet and confirmation bullshit stories are important, but not crucial IMHO.

[rzemanfl]

2. It is overwhelming for all of us. Yet we know how to spell "hereby." Imagine how it is

for Twitler. Sad!

[Saboburns]

41. Bravo

Well done, well done.

Take a bow!

[rzemanfl]

43. Thank you. n/t

[pandr32]

3. It is so overwhelming it numbs.

That is a problem... Outrageous news is so constant it is becoming common place to many people who stop paying attention to how dire it is. We have to remind people that Russia has sabotaged our democracy with the help of a very corrupt bunch of white, rich men who are anything but "conservatives."

[AgadorSparticus]

12. Yes. Everything is so over the top, it makes me want to poke my eyes out.

I worry that it will be normalized. This shit just can't be accepted and normal to us. Just cant.

[BadgerMom]

25. Too exhausting to be normalized

I really think the intensity is draining. I wake up, check the news, make calls to my representatives and wait all day for the next revelation. Endlessly I check my Twitter feed. I would say I can't wait to return to normal but for two points. One, I feel as though democracy is rocking atop a cliff and I'm not completely certain we'll move it successfully to safe ground. Two, even if the ending is what I work toward and hope for, I think our level of engagement must remain higher than we've considered normal previously. Republicans will get no more free passes.

[AgadorSparticus]

26. I don't think you have to worry. one good thing I have noticed (at least in my little world)

Is that cheeto has miraculously lit the fire under every democrat and independent I know. I have never seen this level of participation and commitment from SO MANY people. I was worried that the excitement from the women's march would wane. But not one iota. Everyone is still quite engaged and readying for battle, actually.

I hope it isn't just in my neck of the woods. I hope this is happening all over the country.

[BadgerMom]

35. We're busy here in Ventura County, California, too!

It's hard to feel as though you're moving the needle when all of your elected representatives are Democrats. I know. It's a very good thing. But Dianne Feinstein is the elected official needing the most effort!

[ginnyinWI]

23. I agree. Numb. I think it helps to step away regularly.

Don't have the news on 24/7. The world will keep on spinning if you go and do something else--watch a movie, walk the dog, bake a cake with only music on the radio.

I tend to check the papers in the morning (digitally), check DU and Twitter for a bit, and then let it go until the evening news. Don't watch cable because we don't have it. Anything good is always repeated on YouTube anyway.

[csziggy]

4. I'm thinking I need a big wall to post articles and pictures and tie string to show

All the connections. Sort of like those walls that all the conspiracy nuts have in the movies, you know?

Or maybe the software version...

[AgadorSparticus]

13. You already have too many people from this administration involved with russia,

You can already start your wall of webbed treason! Good god! You really could! It sounds like a horror spy movie...that is very much our reality right now.

[elfin]

5. It is a strategy to destabilize our republic via Putineers

Textbook ala authoritarian wannabes.

If we become overwhelmed and disoriented by the crush of "news", just maybe we will turn it off and let them go about their business unhindered by organized and knowlegeable protest.

Our beleaguered press is working as hard as it can to give us the info we need. Up to us what to do with it.

I am trying to prioritize just a few issues out of so many to communicate with my Congress critters in some depth. Mine are Russia, Women, and Science. Others have a different list, and I trust they are going in depth and communicating as well.

So many more - Labor, Finance, Environment (also Science) etc. - I can't cover them, except briefly, all all the time. I rely on DU and MSM ala WaPo, NYT, NEW Yorker, Guardian for info that guides my missives to those in power.

[Gabi Hayes]

11. check out what they've accomplished in Sweden and France, and

are up to in the Netherlands

Russian Hackers May Now Be Mucking With European Elections
France, Germany, and the Netherlands could be vulnerable.

When the US intelligence community released a report in early January laying out the evidence for Russian meddling in the US election, US officials warned that this wasn't a one-off attack, and that Russia could soon set its hacker corps loose to disrupt elections in other countries. "Moscow will apply lessons learned from its Putin-ordered campaign aimed at the US presidential election to future efforts worldwide," the report said, "including against US allies and their election processes."

Putin didn't wait long to fulfill that prediction. On February 22, the Moscow Times reported that the Russian government had "created a new military unit to conduct 'information operations' against Russia's foes." Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said, when announcing the unit, that "propaganda should be smart, competent and effective." There's no concrete evidence yet, but it appears that Russia may be now attempting to weaken NATO and to divide Europe by destabilizing elections in France and Germany, two of the EU's strongest members.

"This form of interference in French democratic life is unacceptable and I denounce it," Jean-Marc Ayrault, France's minister of foreign affairs, said on February 19 in an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche, a French newspaper. "The French will not accept that their choices are dictated to them," he said while discussing Russian actions in Europe and attempts to weaken non pro-Russian candidates ahead of the country's presidential election in May.

Ayrault was responding to reports that the Russian government may have been targeting the campaign of Emmanuel Macron, a centrist "pro-liberal and pro-Europe" candidate who has a chance of defeating Marine Le Pen, a right-wing nationalist, in the hotly contested French presidential elections this May. Le Pen has promised to pull France out of the European Union, and, much like Donald Trump, has advocated a better relationship with the Russian government. Macron's campaign has said its computer systems have been attacked, and that "fake news"—that include allegations of a homosexual affair and attempts to connect Macron with American financial interests and Hillary Clinton—has been spread throughout France by Russian-owned media, such as Sputnik and RT

.

as I heard somebody say on the radio today, for the cost of (some sort of) bigass, bloated navy white elephant ship, the russians can hire five THOUSAND hackers

that frickin USS Ford has run up over seventeen billion so far, including about 5 bil in RandD, and it's not over.

W
T
F?????

[AgadorSparticus]

15. Europeans are not as stupid as Americans. I have read that

If anything, Europe is watching the trump catastrophe and and people are getting a preview of what is to come with this nationalist movement and they are aghast.

There is much blowback already to the rise in the populist movement. I don't think they had anticipated it. That is why Maureen Le Pen has had to walk back on some issues and tone down her rhetoric. That is why Martin of the socialist party in germany is suddenly in striking distance of the great angela merkel. Plus, the governments over there are not standing by and allowing fake news to spread. They already see what has happened to UK and the US and are preemptively attacking it.

But Moscow will try...

[Gabi Hayes]

16. check it:

Putin accused of undermining Sweden with intelligence campaign to threaten NATO

Martin Kragh and Sebastian Asberg of the Swedish Institute of International Affairs said Moscow has increased “active measures” towards Sweden, which is not a member of NATO, since Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014.

In a report, the pair claim the Kremlin used “forgeries, disinformation, military threats and agents of influence” to disrupt Sweden-NATO co-operation.

Sweden and NATO actively co-operate in peace and security operations and have developed practical co-operation in many other areas including education and training, and defence reform.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/753866/russia-putin-sweden-nato-intelligence-campaign-military-threats

[AgadorSparticus]

17. That doesnt surprise me at all. I hope Sweden is taking the necessary safeguard

Against the fake news, propoganda, and all the other methods of "influence" that they employ. I hope Sweden is strong enough to stand up to the russian onslaught.

Germany has started protecting themselves. Germans are tough, though.

Russia has declared war on all the countries of NATO. This is a War of information and we must all band together and stop Putin.

[Gabi Hayes]

18. your last sentence sums up what somebody said on tv the other

day....5000 hackers for the price of an aegis destroyer, or whatever

that's where they're putting the money

watergate on megasteroids, without leaving the keyboard

did you see samantha bee interviewing a couple of those russian hacker aholes?

[Gabi Hayes]

19. and if you need a break from reality....try a look into the near future

william gibson:

neuromancer

virtual light

idori

pattern recognition

etc

[AgadorSparticus]

28. I love the suggestions! Thank you! I will see if I can find that book, pattern recognition

From either my library or the used bookstore down the street. I love these kinds of concepts.

The others are great as well. Thank you!

[Gabi Hayes]

29. my favorite was virtual light.....san francisco dystopia...

people living on the severed Oakland Bay bridge

he's got a real eye and ear for the real and imagined

he's got a great interview in the Paris Review

you could spend a lot of time reading those

really good one with R. Crumb, of all people, talking about his big project, illustrating the first book of the bible

[AgadorSparticus]

21. No. I did not know that they hired 5000 hackers. Good god.

They have built their army. And clearly we need to do the same.

I will go check out samantha bee. Thanks, Gabi.

[Gabi Hayes]

24. I don't know if that was just conjecture, but they do have a huge number

of hackers working on multiple fronts internationally

they're so far ahead of the west in this, it would seem, that we're in for some serious messing with in the future, especcially with the accelerating dumbing down of our own populace

that's the scariest thing of all....50 plus MILLION imbeciles, with absolutely ZERO ability to think for themselves

[AgadorSparticus]

30. I think it is clear that they have a big head start on us.

They hacked into both party's databases and god knows what else they hacked into (besides the voting machines). I have no doubt they have dug in deep. And now you are telling me they added another army of hackers to their arsenal? Yeaaa. It is war. All out war. And we need to take it as seriously as getting bombed at.

And in feel like this past month, they have taken advantage of our disorientation over the constant fire bombs lodged from this administration. Maybe they have been busy breaking laws? I don't know. I just have a bad gut feeling and not just about the stuff that is on the news that we know of.

IAE, They must be REALLY good because we didn't prepare for it. We didn't see it coming.

Interestingly, the Chinese tried to do something similar. Only they weren't as silent. There were a couple incidences where the Chinese hacked into big corporations (Sony? ) here in the u.s. Do you remember that? I just remember Obama made 1 public comment but then after that it was all silence. No more. I think a lot happened behind the scenes and Obama shook a big stick.

[Gabi Hayes]

31. pretty sure it was N Korea that did sony, because of that sadly

horrible seth rogen movie about offing the dear leader

[AgadorSparticus]

34. You're right. My bad. It was the N. Koreans that hacked into Sony. I can't remember what the Chinese

Hacked into. Maybe they hacked into u.s. companies and government offices? They even had spies here that went to jail. I just don't remember the details.

But clearly they weren't as good as the Russians. Or not as lethal. It seems to me like they had different motives for hacking. They were more interested in stealing money and ideas. Whereas, The Russians are more nefarious. They want to destroy democracy. They have a different agenda that involves global domination.

[Baitball Blogger]

6. The Republicans have found a cure for that. They stopped listening.

[bdamomma]

9. even to their constituents

they are/will be finished. The only thing they care about is the almighty $$$$$$ which they will choke on.

[dalton99a]

7. They're daily variations of a theme

[AgadorSparticus]

36. Yes. Exactly! LOL

[manicraven]

8. I was just saying that very thing to my husband. Can't keep up and keep it all straight.

I think Twitter, Facebook online sites, etc., are all playing into it - It's information overload. Mostly, I'm trying to keep up on the Russia-Trump ties and think it's the most serious situation.

[ariadne0614]

45. Rachel Maddow is very good at explaining the intricacies.

Last edited Sat Mar 4, 2017, 10:41 PM - Edit history (1)

Here's a link to segments from last night's must-see show: http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show

[Gabi Hayes]

10. here you go....this could turn out to be the single most important

story of the entire KGOP treason show

https://www.dcreport.org/2017/02/25/another-cabinet-pick-with-secret-ties-to-putin-and-oligarchs/

[AgadorSparticus]

14. Werent there 5 from his cabinet tied to mother russia? flynn, sessions, tillerson,

Ross....and who was the 5th? Anyone?

On edit: nevermind. I came across the answer myself. There are 7: flynn, tillerson, sessions, ross, kushner, page, and cohen.

[Gabi Hayes]

20. dunno about cabinet, but there's carter page, j.d. gordon, and one

other guy they showed on cnn, who I can't find right now, along with jared kushner, ivanka's husband, and son of convicted criminal billionaire

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/03/02/exclusive-two-other-trump-advisers-also-spoke-russian-envoy-during-gop-convention/98648190/

[Gabi Hayes]

22. michael cohen.....god, he's at least as loathsome as stephen miller

cohen threatens lawyer :

After being challenged on his claim about spousal rape -- the marital rape exemption in New York was struck down in 1984, according to the Daily Beast -- Cohen threatened epic legal action if the story was published.

“I will make sure that you and I meet one day while we’re in the courthouse. And I will take you for every penny you still don’t have. And I will come after your Daily Beast and everybody else that you possibly know,” Cohen said.

“So I’m warning you, tread very f---ing lightly, because what I’m going to do to you is going to be f---ing disgusting. You understand me?”

“You write a story that has Mr. Trump’s name in it, with the word ‘rape,’ and I’m going to mess your life up…for as long as you’re on this frickin’ planet…you’re going to have judgments against you, so much money, you’ll never know how to get out from underneath it,” he added.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/donald-trumps-lawyers-threaten-daily-811431

thugs and thieves, that's all they are

[lillypaddle]

27. I know, right?

And here I am at 1:00 am watching TRMS and those shows that follow. One can't look away for a moment because the shit is hitting the fan every goddamned second.

[Grammy23]

32. I should be asleep. I Don't get enough. But who can sleep with stuff cracking open every

Hour?? I try to leave the news off but there is always the iPad with quick access to DU and a dozen other places. At night there is just a continuous stream of news coming thick and fast. The other night when MSNBC was doing the special on tRump and Putin, it became obvious right off the bat that things were unfolding quickly and they were readjusting the show on the fly. They actually did a good job given the news that was breaking almost the entire time they were on.

I have had to make myself stay away at times as it just consumes too much time and energy and I need to do other things. I am retired but still have chores and things I'd rather do. But this whole mess is so compelling and frightening, anxiety provoking and maddening, it is extremely difficult to stop looking, reading and searching for clues.

Someone else mentioned needing a chart with strings connecting all the players in this puzzle. I have seen a few with tRump's financial connections and that alone is very confusing, although enlightening. Perhaps some creative person will make a flow chart...kind of like they use on crime drama shows, to help those of us struggling with the ever widening circle of thugs, thieves and useful idiots. Isn't that what Putin allegedly considers tRump? His useful idiot?

[lillypaddle]

33. I feel like

I work the night shift. Luckily, like you, I am retired.

[AgadorSparticus]

37. Yes! It seems like all our conversations start with, "omg, did you hear?"

And funny thing is, we just go right into it and without even mentioning his name, we just KNOW it is about cheeto.

[ecstatic]

38. Yes! I need cliff notes! Where can we find daily (live blog style) bullet points?

[canetoad]

39. Got out of the shower the other day

In front of mirror, couldn't remember what side I parted my hair on.

You're having a hard time?

[Hortensis]

40. God, no, and I'm not keeping up.

Last edited Sat Mar 4, 2017, 05:25 AM - Edit history (1)

Webs, connections, new names almost every day, people and business entities, and questions after questions, all huge.

[butdiduvote]

42. I gave up on trying to make sense of all of it.

Thank goodness someone else is paid to connect all of these dots because Lord knows I'm not smart enough to keep up. I've accepted that there is no way I can personally keep track of the details and ultimately no benefit in me trying to do so. Not like anyone is going to call me looking for answers. I'm just trying to keep to the basics and let the complex details sort themselves out in time.

[Pluvious]

44. Looking back at this time, the GDP charts will show a collective productivity dip

Way too much time at work reading and discussing.

Can you imagine the swipes per hour metrics caused by the torrent our Twitter feeds have caused ?

This period will have sociologists occupied for years.

[ariadne0614]

46. Sage advice from Robert Reich

Know Your Trump Syndromes [link:https://m.

|

[AgadorSparticus]

47. !!!!