Trump the saboteur

Don't presume that Trump is on his way out. He has a plan.

Trump has deliberately undermined this nation's cybersecurity, thereby making it easier for a foreign actor to hack our election system. Any congressperson who hopes to to keep his job will be made to understand that only those with Trump's seal of approval will win the vote.

See this story in The Hill:

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has outlined a reorganization plan that would involve closing the State Department office charged with promoting U.S. cybersecurity interests abroad, according to a letter obtained Tuesday.

In a letter to Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), Tillerson confirmed his proposal to eliminate the position of cybersecurity coordinator and fold the functions of the cyber office into a bureau in charge of business and economic affairs.

Now go here:

A quarter of the members of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, whose purview includes national cybersecurity, have resigned. In a group resignation letter, they cited both specific shortfalls in the administration’s approach to cybersecurity, and broader concerns that Trump and his administration have undermined the “moral infrastructure” of the U.S.

The resignations came Monday and were acknowledged by the White House on Tuesday.

But the resigning advisors also said the Administration was not “adequately attentive to the pressing national security matters within the NIAC’s purview, or responsive to sound advice received from experts and advisors.” The letter also zeroed in on “insufficient attention to the growing threats to the cybersecurity of the critical systems upon which all Americans depend,” including election systems.

The actual resignation letter is here.

You have given insufficient attention to the growing threats to the cybersecurity of the critical systems upon which all Americans depend, including those impacting the systems supporting our democratic election process.

(Emphasis added.) I am convinced that Trump did not blunder. This is deliberate sabotage. 

Throughout much of the past year, we've all been arguing about the "Russia did it" theory -- a theory which I happen to consider proven beyond reasonable argument. But in a deeper sense, we need not argue whether Russia or some other malefic actor is behind the subversion of our democracy. The important point is this: Trump has deliberately unlocked the locks and unbolted the bolts. He has fired half the guards and paid off the others. He snipped the wires powering the alarm system and fed poisoned snacks to the German Shepherds. The house is unprotected; theft is inevitable.

Election rigging will soon become undetectable, if it is not so already. The fraudsters need only keep their dirty work within a certain degree of plausibility: Maybe they can't get away with having someone like Steve Bannon win a congressional seat representing Los Angeles, but they can insure that the House remains in Republican hands.

Of course, the subverters of democracy must cover their tracks with a certain amount of propaganda. Certain media figures will assure the public not to worry about any mismatches between the exit polls and the actual results. Other well-recompensed pundits will tell us to place all blame for the upcoming 2018 Democratic loss on the DNC or on "establishment" Democrats or on those awful, awful Clintons. Any of the usual boogeymen will do.