Saturday, May 20, 2017

While every neighbour’s eye was fixed on me

The photograph was taken on April 22nd.

This morning I walked for over two hours, exploring Timmermalmi nature protection area. The weather was warm, 18 °C, and birds were making a racket.

If someone would have written two years ago a novel or a movie script about what is being revealed about Trump, nobody would have believed:

  • The family* and people in key positions in the campaign have been engaged in massive money laundering, through various intermediaries and places such as the Cayman Islands. Billions of dollars from Russia etc. have been passed through these people.
  • The campaign colluded with Russia in the election, coordinating the efforts through intermediaries such as Flynn, Manafort, etc.
  • Russia is engaged in a massive effort to spread falsehoods about people critical of Trump, using advanced data analytics for precise targeting of propaganda on platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. This effort is carefully coordinated, for example using Trump's tweets as magnifiers of propaganda.
  • Trump and people close to him have shared classified information with Russia, and made policy decisions advancing the interests of Russia.
  • Also, people close to Trump have been engaging in policy decisions which will in longer term destroy the environment, crush the education system, and wipe out health care in the United States. One example of this is denial of climate change, benefiting the oil industry, and thus Russia.
  • Not to forget the hundreds of lies Trump alone has told since January, or other such "minor" details, which are just the tip of the iceberg of the disinformation campaign going on.
  • Also, there is the case of emoluments, i.e. the president taking money and other benefits from foreign states.
  • When facts about the wrongdoings have been leaking, Trump and his people have engaged in measures which are clearly obstruction of justice.

It is good to see that New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal etc. have woken up and are writing about the revelations. Even better is the work done by activists and "citizen journalists", who often reveal information about Trump and his minions weeks or months before it has been verified by more official sources.

* Here I use the word "family" in a meaning that is familiar from mafia movies.

(Posting title is from the poem A Disappointment by Joanna Baillie.)

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