Politics Daily: Trump & Treason | Did Silicon Valley Create Donald Trump?

Silicon Valley Meets Its Biggest Creation: Donald Trump Vanity Fair

For years, Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park featured a rectangular sign that reflected the ambition and spirit of Mark Zuckerberg and his legions of dedicated employees. It read, in bold, red lettering, “Move Fast and Break Things.” Twitter had a similar poster that hung in its San Francisco office, noting “Let’s Make Better Mistakes Tomorrow.” These mantras aren’t an anomaly in Silicon Valley’s playground-like campuses. Cubicles, hallways, cafeterias, and meeting rooms are festooned with Rockne-esque white-board-style slogans such as “Done Is Better Than Perfect” or “Fortune Favors the Bold,” or “Don’t Bury Your Failures, Let Them Inspire You.”

These maxims have their value, and they have helped inspire a wealth-generation machine unlike any other in human history. But moving too fast can come with consequences, especially when the mantra is heeded by young people who are often still in their 20s and 30s. In fact, the tech industry’s adherence to an ideology of rapid acceleration helps explain why America finds itself in its current predicament, with hackers reportedly involved in swaying our election and a growing acceptance of xenophobia spreading across the nation. Perhaps many of the people who convened at Trump Tower were so focused on those mottos that they did not realize an outcome they might create.

Donald Trump raises specter of treason The Boston Globe

In a damning op-ed John Shattuck lays out the particulars of a treasonous act against the American government and Trump's refusal to buy into the conclusions of America's intelligence agencies that Russia interfered with the American election.

The federal crime of treason is committed by a person “owing allegiance to the United States who . . . adheres to their enemies, giving them aid or comfort,” and misprision of treason is committed by a person “having knowledge of the commission of any treason [who] conceals and does not disclose” the crime. By denigrating or seeking to prevent an investigation of the Russian cyberattack Trump is giving aid or comfort to an enemy of the United States, a crime that is enhanced if the fourth explanation applies — that he is in fact seeking to cover up his staff’s or his own involvement in or prior knowledge of the attack.

ExxonMobil helped defeat Russia sanctions bill Politico

ExxonMobil successfully lobbied against the STAND for Ukraine Act, a bill that would have converted into law for five years President Obama's punishing measures against Russia for annexing Crimea. With the Senate refusing to act on the bill, proposed Secy of State Rex Tillerson is posed to roll back sanctions and relaunch a deal he made with Russia that is worth a staggering amount of money to ExxonMobile and Putin himself.

More reading:

Donald Trump and the Rise of Alt-Reality Media Politico Magazine

The Donald Trump Appointment Tracker Marie Claire