Wednesday, February 21, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
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‘Real U.S. persons’
By Jim Cornelius
Editor in Chief
I went home with a
waitress
The way I always do
How was I to know
She was with the Russians
too?
— Wa r re n Z e v o n ,
“Lawyers Guns and Money”
Letters to the Editor…
The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer’s name, address and phone number. Let-
ters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor.
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To the Editor:
In the Letters section of the February 14
Nugget, Terry Weygandt, in referring to Craig
Rullman’s Bunkhouse Chronicle of February
7, seemed to make some pretty bold claims
that seem questionable.
Initially Terry claims, “there is absolutely
no evidence that Democrats attempted to influ-
ence the election in favor of Hillary Clinton.” I
would suggest that millions of Bernie support-
ers would argue the real evidence says differ-
ent. And, with ongoing investigations still in
progress it may be a bit premature to use terms
like “absolutely.”
Continuing on, Terry says that Mr. Rullman
“could do a little research” and suggested he
listen to Pod Save America. Being curious I
got online and listened to the February 1, 2018
session mentioned. The Pod Save America site
where Terry calls the hosts “funny and smart”
turns out to hosted by far left, foul-mouthed,
former Obama staffers full of hate for Trump.
If the Dems run on a platform “Elect Us
Because We Hate Trump” in the midterms
I’m not sure that will be effective. It certainly
hasn’t done anything for the credibility of
Hillary’s mainstream press.
Jeff Mackey
s
s
s
To the Editor:
I would like to put in my two cents regard-
ing snow removal in the City of Sisters.
Sunday morning, we all woke up to sev-
eral inches of snow in town. As a retail shop
employee, part of our opening duties are to
help shovel the sidewalks, decks, and even
See LETTERS on page 28
Sisters Weather Forecast
Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon
Wednesday
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The sense that Russia
— and more specifically its
president, Vladimir Putin —
were the big winners in the
2016 U.S. presidential elec-
tion is only enhanced by the
indictment of 13 Russians
handed down by special
counsel Robert Mueller last
week. These bad actors and
a Russian Internet troll farm
— none of which are likely
to ever see the inside of a
U.S. courtroom — undertook
an array of nefarious and
fraudulent practices to “sow
discord” in the United States
and “spread distrust towards
the candidates and the politi-
cal system in general.”
The operation was a suc-
cess, regardless of its sub-
stantive impact on the out-
come of the election.
Deputy Attorney General
Rod Rosenstein noted last
week that “There is no alle-
gation in the indictment that
the charged conduct altered
the outcome of the 2016 elec-
tion.” OK. But there’s really
no way to know that — how
can you measure the impact
of discord and distrust on
hearts and minds? In any
case, swaying the election
one way or another was not
a requirement for this asym-
metric psy-op to earn a few
trolls a medal or two. All the
Russians had to do to make
Uncle Vova smile that oily,
predatory smile was to roil
the American waters.
And roiled they are…
severely.
The indictment is both
good and bad for Donald
Trump. On the good side, the
indictment offers no indica-
tion that there was collusion
between his campaign and
Russian actors.
“There is no allegation
in this indictment that any
American was a knowing
participant in this illegal
activity,” Rosenstein said.
All “real U.S. persons”
who interacted with Russian
provocateurs did so as
“unwittingly” as Warren
Zevon in his choice of wait-
ress companions. How were
they to know?
There may be another
shoe yet to drop, but this
indictment provides no fuel
to the collusion narrative.
On the other hand,
Trump’s persistent com-
plaints that the whole Russia
investigation is a “hoax” or
“fake news” are no longer
sustainable, even for his most
ardent supporters.
“Good or bad for Donald
Trump” has always been
the president’s sole measur-
ing stick, but that should
not be the focus. Given that
the Russian actions amount
to “information warfare on
America,” there’s something
more significant at stake
here. The president should
act decisively to defend his
country. Instead, he’s point-
ing fingers at everybody but
Russia and taunting Oprah
Winfrey.
The great revelation of
the Russia investigation
so far is just how ripe the
American electorate is for
exploitation. There’s a lot of
anger out there, soaked in the
rocket fuel of fear and resent-
ment; it doesn’t take much of
a spark to make it go up in
flames. Our fingers are itch-
ing on our keyboards, quick
to fire off a killer meme or
retweet an insult, but reluc-
tant to drill down on issues,
policies and candidates.
We’re all too credulous about
“information” — accurate or
not — that confirms and vali-
dates our biases and often too
lazy to do our homework and
draw our own conclusions.
We bunker up in our cho-
sen media silos, unwilling to
listen to another perspective
and always ready to believe
the worst about those who
see things differently than we
do. Friendships and family
relationships fracture along
political faultlines.
And Uncle Vova smiles.
Here in Sisters, we’re still
a small enough and tight-knit
enough community that we
can have real conversations
with other “real U.S. per-
sons.” It takes a little work,
and it can be a little intimi-
dating stepping out of our
echo-chamber and hearing
something we may not like
from somebody we do like.
But that’s the only antidote to
the hostile bunker mentality
we’ve allowed to take root in
our country, which bad actors
who mean us harm can and
will — as this indictment
shows — exploit.
So go have a cup of cof-
fee with your neighbor who
stands on the other side of the
political fence. You may have
more in common than you
think — and you’re sticking
it to Uncle Vova just a little.
Which can’t be a bad thing.
Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.