It's as official as it is ever going to get - the Russian Government decided it would like this man to be the 45th President of the United States of America

It's as official as it is ever going to get - the Russian Government decided it would like this man to be the 45th President of the United States of America.

Donald John Trump

U.S. National Intelligence Council, Intelligence Community Assessment, 6 January 2017, excerpt:

“This report is a declassified version of a highly classified assessment; its conclusions are identical to those in the highly classified assessment but this version does not include the full supporting information on key elements of the influence campaign.

Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections

ICA 2017-01D

6 January 2017

Key Judgments

Russian efforts to influence the 2016 US presidential election represent the most recent expression of Moscow’s longstanding desire to undermine the US-led liberal democratic order, but these activities demonstrated a significant escalation in directness, level of activity, and scope of effort compared to previous operations. We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election. Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump. We have high confidence in these judgments.

 We also assess Putin and the Russian Government aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him. All three agencies agree with this judgment. CIA and FBI have high confidence in this judgment; NSA has moderate confidence.

 Moscow’s approach evolved over the course of the campaign based on Russia’s understanding of the electoral prospects of the two main candidates. When it appeared to Moscow that Secretary Clinton was likely to win the election, the Russian influence campaign began to focus more on undermining her future presidency.

 Further information has come to light since Election Day that, when combined with Russian behaviour since early November 2016, increases our confidence in our assessments of Russian motivations and goals.

Moscow’s influence campaign followed a Russian messaging strategy that blends covert intelligence operations — such as cyber activity — with overt efforts by Russian Government agencies, state-funded media, third-party intermediaries, and paid social media users or “trolls.” Russia, like its Soviet predecessor, has a history of conducting covert influence campaigns focused on US presidential elections that have used intelligence officers and agents and press placements to disparage candidates perceived as hostile to the Kremlin.

 Russia’s intelligence services conducted cyber operations against targets associated with the 2016 US presidential election, including targets associated with both major US political parties.

 We assess with high confidence that Russian military intelligence (General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate or GRU) used the Guccifer 2.0 persona and DCLeaks.com to release US victim data obtained in cyber operations publicly and in exclusives to media outlets and relayed material to WikiLeaks.

 Russian intelligence obtained and maintained access to elements of multiple US state or local electoral boards. DHS assesses that the types of systems Russian actors targeted or compromised were not involved in vote tallying.

 Russia’s state-run propaganda machine contributed to the influence campaign by serving as a platform for Kremlin messaging to Russian and international audiences.

We assess Moscow will apply lessons learned from its Putin-ordered campaign aimed at the US presidential election to future influence efforts worldwide, including against US allies and their election processes.”

Full declassified report can be found here.

Donald Trump apprised of the facts regarding Iran's nuclear capability in 2017

As 20 January 2017 inexorably approaches a letter to Donald Trump from thirty-seven scientists and engineers was made public:

2 January 2017

Dear President-Elect Trump;

On August 9, 2015 a group of scientists and engineers with understanding of the physics and technology of nuclear power and of nuclear weapons sent an open letter to President Obama about the Iran Deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). We characterized the JCPOA as “an innovative agreement, with much more stringent constraints than any previously negotiated non-proliferation framework.”

Eleven months after “implementation day” we write to provide our assessment of the current status of the JCPOA. As agreed, Iran has deactivated and put into storage under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) seal about 2/3 of its centrifuges, and it has exported more than 95% of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium—a springboard to weapon-usable highly enriched uranium. Iran no longer produces uranium with enrichment near 20%, as it did before the interim Joint Plan of Action (JPOA), but is restricted to 3.67% enrichment. As a result of the reduced centrifuge capacity and the elimination of the large stock of partially enriched uranium, the breakout time for Iran to produce enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon has increased to many months, from just a few weeks during the time that the JPOA was under negotiation. IAEA inspectors now have the right to daily access at Iran’s enrichment plant at Natanz, and monitoring devices there make continuous on-line enrichment measurements. We are confident that no surprise breakout at this facility is possible.

The large “calandria” or reactor vessel for Iran’s heavy-water reactor has been rendered inoperable, and Iran’s stockpile of heavy water has been reduced to 130 metric tons and capped at that level. The overage of 0.1 tons recently reported by the IAEA, of no strategic significance, was remedied by export of 11 tons as verified by the IAEA. The redesign of the reactor will ensure that its plutonium production will be about 10% of that from the original design, and, when construction is complete and the reactor has begun operation, the fuel that has generated plutonium will be removed from Iran. These steps eliminate the means for Iran to produce plutonium, the alternative material for nuclear weapons.

Furthermore, Iran has agreed to an enhanced version of the procedures of the “Additional Protocol” to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which gives IAEA inspectors access to, inter alia, centrifuge manufacturing, R&D and storage sites, and uranium mines, as well as any suspect potential clandestine uranium enrichment facilities.

In sum, the JCPOA has dramatically reduced the risk that Iran could suddenly produce significant quantities of nuclear-weapon materials. This has lowered the pressure felt by Iran’s neighbors to develop their own nuclear weapons options and none has announced a new dual-use nuclear program of its own.

In the near term it will be necessary to maintain vigilance using the verification procedures in place. As we noted in our previous letter, if Iran decides to increase its enrichment capacity as allowed by the JCPOA after about ten years, enhanced verification measures would be desirable and consistent with Iran’s commitment in the JCPOA to implement certified modern verification procedures in line with internationally accepted IAEA practice. Multinational participation in what is currently a purely national program for producing power reactor fuel may also be a desirable means to enhance transparency.

The JCPOA does not take any options off the table for you or any future president. Indeed it makes it much easier for you to know if and when Iran heads for a bomb. It provides both time and legitimacy for an effective response.

Our technical judgment is that the multilateral JCPOA provides a strong bulwark against an Iranian nuclear-weapons program. We urge you to preserve this critical U.S. strategic asset.

Sincerely,

Richard L. Garwin, IBM Fellow Emeritus Robert J. Goldston, Princeton University

Siegfried S. Hecker, Stanford University

Martin Hellman, Stanford University

Rush D. Holt, American Association for the Advancement of Science R. Scott Kemp, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Frank von Hippel, Princeton University

_______________________________________________________________________

Also signed by:

John F. Ahearne, Member, National Academy of Engineering

Philip W. Anderson, Professor Emeritus, Princeton University

Lewis M. Branscomb, Professor Emeritus, University of California at San Diego

Christopher Chyba, Princeton University

Leon N. Cooper, Brown University

Pierce S. Corden, Former Director, Office of International Security Negotiations,

Bureau of Arms Control, Department of State

John M. Cornwall, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, UCLA

Philip E. Coyle, Former Associate Director for National Security and

International Affairs, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

Sidney D. Drell, Stanford University

Freeman Dyson, Professor Emeritus, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

Harold A. Feiveson, Program on Science and Global Security, Princeton University

Charles D. Ferguson, Federation of American Scientists

Michael E. Fisher, Emeritus, Cornell University and the University of Maryland

Jerome I. Friedman, Nobel Prize in physics 1990

Victor Gilinsky, Former Member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Howard Georgi, Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics, Harvard University

Sheldon L. Glashow, Higgins Professor of Physics Emeritus, Harvard University,

Arthur Metcalf Professor of Science and Mathematics, Boston University

Lisbeth Gronlund, Union of Concerned Scientists

David Gross, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, UCSB

Gregory Loew, Emeritus Stanford/SLAC Professor

Allison M Macfarlane, George Washington University

Richard A. Meserve, President Emeritus, Carnegie Institution for Science

Marvin Miller, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

C. Kumar N. Patel, Professor Emeritus, Dept of Physics and Astonomy, UCLA

John Parmentola, Former Senior VP General Atomics and Former Director for Research

And Laboratory Management U.S. Army

Malvin A. Ruderman, Columbia University

Burton Richter, Stanford University

Myriam Sarachik, City College of New York, CUNY

Roy F. Schwitters, The University of Texas at Austin

David Wright, Union of Concerned Scientists

(Affiliations for identification only)

Quote of the Week

South Australians could point out that Senator Leyonhjelm was born on April 1 in a town called Nhill and hasn’t amounted to much, but that would be churlish. [Journalist Tory Shepherd writing in The Advertiser on 1 December 2016]

Political Cartoons of the Week

@CathyWilcox1

via @yambafan

Here is a way to help Donald John Trump avoid a few of his many potential pecuniary conflicts of interest once he is sworn-in as the 45th United States president

As it is almost a given that Donald Trump will be incapable of distancing himself from his business interests during this presidential term unaided; kind-heated people all over the world can assist him by boycotting goods and services supplied by Trump family companies as well as the businesses which carry these goods/services or who sponsor his televised events/TV shows.

These lists are a guideline for the kind-hearted.

Boycott Trump app lists these companies via a Facebook page:

NEW YORK:

• Trump World Tower

• Trump Tower

• Trump Plaza

• 40 Wall Street

• 1290 Avenue of the Americas

• West Side development

• Trump Park Ave. (Delmonico Hotel)

• Trump International Hotel

• The Residences at Trump National in Westchester County NATIONAL:

• Bank of America Center, San Francisco

• Trump Entertainment (casinos) (Atlantic City)

• Trump Las Vegas

• Mar-a-Lago (Palm Beach, FL)

• Trump Chicago

• Miami Beach Hotel/Trump International Beach Resort (Miami, FL)

• Donald J. Trump clothing (sold exclusively at Macy's)

GOLF COURSES:

• Trump International Golf Club, Raffles Resort (Canouan Island, The Grenadines)

• Trump National Golf Club, Bedminster (Bedminster, NJ)

• Trump National Golf Club, Los Angeles (Rancho Palos Verdes, CA)

• Trump International Golf Club (West Palm Beach, FL)

ON TV:

• The Apprentice

• The Celebrity Apprentice

• Miss Universe

• Miss USA

• Miss Teen USA

• Fox and Friends (Fox News)

CELEBRITY APPRENTICE SPONSORS 

1. Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc.

Attn: Consumer Relations

P.O. Box 86077

Plano, TX 75086-9077

Telephone: 1-800-696-5891   1-800-696-5891      

2.  Omaha Steaks

10909 John Galt Blvd

P.O. Box 3300

Omaha, NE 68103

Customer Service: 800-228-9872  800-228-9872      

3.  Dr Pepper Snapple Group

http://www.drpeppersnapplegroup.com/....

Corporate Headquarters

Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Inc

5301 Legacy Drive

Plano, TX 75024

(972) 673-7000  (972) 673-7000      

Consumer Relations

(800) 696-5891 (800) 696-5891      

4. On-Star

http://www.onstar.com/....

Phone: 1.888.4.ONSTAR 1.888.4.ONSTAR   (1.888.466.7827 1.888.466.7827 )

TTY Users Only 1.877.248.2080 1.877.248.2080 (Hearing/Speech Impaired)

Mail: OnStar Subscriber Services

PO Box 1027

Warren, MI 48090-1027

5. Australian Gold

http://www.australiangold.com/

Contact us: info@australiangold.com

1.800.633.0069 1.800.633.0069      

6270 CORPORATE DR.

Indianapolis, IN 46278

6. Camping World

http://www.campingworld.com/....

Phone: 1-800-626-3636 1-800-626-3636      

7.  ACN

http://www.acninc.com/....

ACN World Headquarters:

1000 Progress Place

Concord, NC 28025-2449

Phone: 704-260-3000 704-260-3000      

8.  Farouk

http://www.farouk.com/....

1-800-237-9175 1-800-237-9175      

Change.Org has a petition up to Boycott Trump and lists the following advertisers:

9.  Enterprise Rental Car Company

CEO, Enterprise Rental Car Company(Andrew C. Taylor)

314-512-2206 314-512-2206      

ataylor@erac.com

andrew.c.taylor@erac.com

10. Clorox Bleach Company

The Clorox Company(Donald R. Knauss)

The Clorox Company, Clorox

1221 Broadway Floor 13th

Oakland, CA     94612-1815 map

PUBLIC, NYSE: CLX

Phone: (510) 271-7000 (510) 271-7000      

11. Sprint-Nextel Cellphones

CEO, Sprint-Nextel Wireless(Dan Hesse)

6360 Sprint Parkway

Overland Park, KS 66251

(816) 679-5552 (816) 679-5552      

(800) 829-0965 (800) 829-0965      

12.  Bristol-Myers Squibb

Laura Hortas

Director, Business Communications

Route 206 and Province Line Road

Princeton, NJ 08540

Phone: 609-252-4587 609-252-4587      

13.  The Walt Disney Company

The Walt Disney Company(Robert Iger)

(818) 560-1000 (818) 560-1000      

Fax:  (818) 560-1930

14.  Groupon

CEO, Groupon Inc.(Andrew Mason)

Email Groupon at support@groupon.com or call 1 (877) 788-7858 1 (877) 788-7858  (Monday through Friday, 9-5 central time)

Website listing companies which carry Trump goods:

https://grabyourwallet.org/

Dear Prime Minister.....

georgebrowning.com.au, open letter by the Retired Anglican Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn, 10 December 2016:

LETTER TO PRIME MINISTER

10/12/2016

​

Dear Prime Minister,

I don't suppose ordinary citizens are supposed to understand how politicians make their decisions especially when they fly in the face of logic. But sometimes a lack of logic and common sense, together with the seeming absence of any care for the interest of ordinary Australians, let alone the rest of the world, is beyond bewildering - it fills one with a mixture of anger and despair.

Your decision this week to rule out even the possibility of an "emissions intensity scheme" is in this category.

Have you received advice from your chief scientist that a scheme like this is essential if Australia is going to play its part with the rest of the world in avoiding catastrophic global warming? Yes you have.

Have you received advice that implementing a scheme like this will ultimately be a net positive for the national economy?  Yes you have.

Have you received advice from industry that bipartisan political support for a scheme like this would be welcome and provide the necessary certainty required for planning and investment?   Yes you have.

Have you received advice that a scheme like this will save each household unnecessary escalation in electricity prices in coming years?   Yes you have.

In the light of all this advice and what we understand to be your own reasonable knowledge of the facts you still chose to appease the rightwing ideologues in your party rather than act for the good of the country.  Presumably your own position of power is more important than anything else.   In these circumstances how do you expect to warrant respect let alone trust as our Prime Minister?

Your characterisation of the states as irresponsible because of the goals they have set reminds me of a kindergarten child making silly comments about other children when it is they who have sulkily refused to participate in the activity of the group.

I am choosing to send this letter to you via my blog, because I have come to the conclusion it is a waste of time to write to you directly.

In the adult world to which I belong, when there is a problem, wide discussion takes place as to the best way of providing a solution.  In an adult world one does not normally rule out best solutions because someone spits the dummy in advance.

I am hoping that all who read this letter will pass it on, and that what you and your government have decided not to do this week will never be forgotten.  While we often bemoan lack of leadership, seldom if ever has genuine leadership been so absent as it has been this week

Yours sincerely

George

Bishop George Browning

#NotMyDebt: those who feel able begin to fight back

Those not overwhelmed by the less than transparent and sometimes aggressive approach Centrelink is taking to queries about or denial of debts being raised by its obviously flawed automated debt recovery process are beginning to push back.......

Click on page images to enlarge

*Daniel Livesey is a web designer and video editor who is employed by a company with extensive experience working with ACT Government and the Australian Government on information campaigns, annual and general reports, promotional products, websites and multimedia projects.

SBS News, 4 January 2016:

Ngarrindjeri elder Elaine Kropinyeri from Mount Gambier in South Australia told SBS News Centrelink had recently cleared her of a $7800 debt, citing an “internal mistake”.

Ms Elaine Kropiyeri said she had not worked for two-and-a-half years after she resigned for “personal reasons” as a cultural consultant at a local foster care service in Mount Gambier, and successfully applied for Centrelink’s NewStart Allowance.

She said she discovered the so-called debt after Centrelink informed her she had been overpaid, in a separate matter, by $600. According to Ms Kropiyeri, Centrelink did not explain how the overpayment had been calculated, but deducted $464 from her regular payments towards the debt.

“It was absolutely terrifying…when you’re on a very meagre income, barely surviving,” she said.

Ms Kropiyeri found the $7800 in an obscure area of her MyGov Centrelink online account while trying to understand her debt notice. This figure, according to Ms Kropiyeri, didn't appear in the usual 'deductions' section.

“They didn’t even send me a letter,” she said.

“If I didn't accidentally come across it the way I did, they would still be deducting from my meagre income.”

Subsequently, Ms Kropiyeri received a statement on November 29 confirming her fears that the larger sum was in fact owing. With the notice showing $7154.52 was still to be repaid, she was able to work out Centrelink had been deducting part of her payment without her knowledge for this larger debt.

…… When Ms Kropiyeri enquired to Centrelink over the phone about the disputed amount owing, she said the staff member could not explain it.

“I am still unsure how this [debt] came to be because, as I said, I hadn't worked and did my reporting every fortnight.”

She was referred to a specialists team where a staff member said the onus was on her to explain the debt to Centrelink.

“But it’s [their] department that determines what overpayments that need to be distributed - I don’t have access to their computers.”

Because she was sure she did not owe any amount, she said she told Centrelink she would take her case to the Ombudsman's Office and ended the phone call.

Within half an hour they called her back to tell her the debt had been waived because of an “internal mistake”.

“I know my rights, so I stood up, tooth and nail, to them.”

* Last time I looked Ngarrindjeri elder Elaine Kropinyeri had been a resident in the Mt. Gambier area for over 30 years and was the inaugural recipient of the NAIDOC award for a lifetime achievement of contribution to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the South East in 2012.

Advice being offered in the media.......

The Sydney Morning Herald, 4 January 2016:

Graham Wells, principal lawyer at Social Security Rights Victoria, which provides legal advice and help for people battling various Centrelink complaints, says the organisation has been run off its feet in the wake of the debt-recovery saga plaguing the agency over the summer break……

So what should you do if you get a letter saying you owe the department money?

Mr Wells says in the first instance, people suspecting their debt assessment is incorrect should go to their nearest Centrelink office, the MyGov website or, "if you're willing to chance it, on the phone", and ask to have their debt reviewed.

Delegated decision makers within Centrelink, called Authorised Review Officers, are authorised to review department decisions on behalf of the minister. They might decide the debt does not exist, is correct, is too low, or is too high.

This can take between two and six months but Mr Wells suggested that, to speed things up, people could regularly call Centrelink to check on the matter, or go to their local MP and make regular representations there.

Mr Wells said if people were still not happy with Centrelink's internal decision-making processes, they could make an application under Freedom of Information laws for the department to release the documents it holds on their supposed debt to them.

"You want to be as specific as possible," he said. "Ask for all documents it holds relating to this debt between this and that date."

Debt collection agencies employed by Centrelink to recover debts have been applying a 10 per cent fee to recover debts related in inaccurate reporting.

"I think it's wrong; I think it's very entrepreneurial on their part," Mr Wells said.

It is, however, legal - although Mr Wells said consumers challenging their debts often had the 10 per cent fee set aside.

Mr Wells suggests that anyone faced with demands from a third-party for repayments go to their local post office and make the smallest repayment they can afford directly to Centrelink, to cut debt recovery agencies out of the loop. He said if it was later found their debt was invalid, Centrelink should return the money.

Finally, people can apply to the social services and child support division of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, which can review Centrelink decisions that have first been reviewed internally.

Victoria Legal Aid executive director of civil justice Dan Nicholson urged anyone who received a letter from Centrelink they believed to be incorrect to get free legal advice from Legal Aid or other organisations across the country.

"Even if you don't have all the information Centrelink asks of you, we advise you to respond to the letter, so you are able to push your side of the story," he said.

"If Centrelink does make a decision that you disagree with, such as you have a debt, I encourage you to challenge the decision – and you have a very good chance of success."

Internal Centrelink figures show that before the agency introduced its debt recovery system, 37.5 per cent of its decisions were revised after internal reviews.