Russian hacking dominating the news…. or is the media once again beating a dead horse?

Calm down I am not saying any attempts at attacking our nations computer infrastructure is not of the highest import, but haven’t we seen the media acting like a wild dog tearing at a bone before? You can not turn on any network television, cable or internet newscast without seeing some grim faced talking head telling us it is akin to a declaration of war, because the Russians hacked computers in the United States.

However this old curmudgeon is wondering why someone chose this moment in time to make the Russians actions 24/7 front page news. After all it is not like we do not have entire departments within the intelligence agency doing exactly the same thing against Russia and other world governments. For years we have not only spied and hacked China, Iran and Russia but also our allies around the world. Yet other than a few days of the new media explaining why it is important that we did that spying those stories were buried.

Have we all forgotten the 2015 news headlines when the obama administration was spying on Germany and other nato nations? At that time we had documented proof of the spying courtesy of Edward Snowden’s stolen NSA files. The proof was undeniable and public, whereas with the current Russian hack for some reason is confidential and can not be shown to the public.

Sen. John McCain said, on December 30, 2016, that Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election amounted to an “act of war.” Yet the United States, China, Russia and Iran and other nations have been spying and hacking each other for decades, so does that mean a global state of war exists between all of these nations?

“When you attack a country, it’s an act of war,” McCain said, “And so we have to make sure that there is a price to pay so that we can perhaps persuade Russians to stop this kind of attacks on our very fundamentals of democracy.” Does this mean McCain expects the nations we are spying on to do the same to us?

I just find it odd that this point in time has been chosen to make a major issue of the spying by Russia, when they are merely doing what we have done for decades. Could this be an attempt by some to force the focus of the incoming Trump administration away from obliterating obama-care and his executive actions? I believe the current administration which still has some control over the media wants them to have the nation focus on an illusionary crisis thus making it harder from Trump to fulfill the promises he made during his campaign.

I guess I am still wearing that tin foil hat
because in this instance
I see the hand of a puppeteer
calling for
an act of war
when we ourselves are
equally guilty.