WELL. NOT SO EXTRAORDINARY, even though Romney seems to be an honorable Republican senator.

If the matter at hand is positively noteworthy, Trump wants to announce it himself so he can take personal credit. If it’s negative, as in this case, he needs someone that he hasn’t fired lately who can be blamed — Mike Pompeo maybe.

In any case, it’s close to the end of Donald’s term and he will just let it all slide. I personally think there are secrets in Moscow and I can’t see where China figures into things.

And lately he’s been busy with other things, such as planting the suggestion that he was halted only by nervous aides from calling for $2,000 stimulus checks for struggling average Americans. He has his personal bundle socked away behind small print now and just wants the impression cast about that he’s all for the country’s desperate common citizens.

Especially now that early voting has begun in the Georgia runoff elections, and in 10 or 11 days it will be determined if the U.S. Senate will turn from red to blue — and Donald may have to fall back on Plan B (“It was all rigged”).

It was a bit stunning the other day when Acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller (appointed following the firing of Mark Esper about Nov. 20) ordered a “Pentagon-wide halt to cooperation” with President-elect Joe Biden’s transition. A couple of dozen scheduled meetings were thus stalled — after Donald Trump already had delayed the beginning of Biden’s transition while refusing to accept results of the 2020 presidential election.

At about the same time a New York Times headline read “More hacking found as officials warn about ‘grave risk’ to U.S.” The story, datelined Washington, D.C., began: “Federal officials issued an urgent warning Thursday that hackers who U.S. intelligence agencies believe were working for the Kremlin, used a far wider variety of tools than previously known to penetrate government systems and said that the cyber offensive was ‘a grave risk to the federal government’ . . .  Microsoft said Thursday that it had identified 40 companies, government agencies and think tanks that the suspected Russian hackers, at a minimum, stole data from. Nearly half are private technology firms, Microsoft said, many of them cybersecurity firms like FireEye that are charged with securing vast sections of the public and private sector . . .”

I liked the consensus headline that wrapped it all up late Saturday in the Daily Mail: “Trump blames Pompeo for blaming Russia for huge cyber attack as he breaks his silence to say CHINA could be responsible and that voting machines may have been hit — but claims it is ‘well under control.’”

The story noted: Donald Trump has hit out at Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for blaming Russia for the huge cyber attack on the U.S. Tagging Pompeo. The president tweeted Saturday that China was behind the unprecedented hack on U.S. government agencies and private sector firms, after the Secretary of State said Friday that the Kremlin was to blame.

Others who are pointing a finger at Russia (and see absolutely no involvement by China) include Chris Krebs, former head of the Cybersecurity and infrastructure Security Agency — fired last month, not long after he publicly pushed back against Trump’s baseless claims of voter fraud in the election.

Also recent presidential scapegoat William Marr, U.S. Attorney General, who resigned this past week. And Republican Senator Mitt Romney, who warned this week about Russia and the record cyber attack: “They potentially have the capacity to cripple us economically, they went to our businesses. They have the potential to also cripple us with regards to our water, electricity and so forth.”

Trump, meanwhile, was tweeting, “There could also have been a hit on our ridiculous voting machines during the election, which is now obvious that I won big making it an even more corrupted embarrassment for the USA,” also tagging Director of National Intelligence John Radcliffe.

Among the federal agencies hacked in the massive cyberattack are the U.S. Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Energy, Treasury and Commerce. But things are “well under control”?

Meanwhile .  . .  The Army has soldiers, the Navy has sailors, and Donald Trump’s, new Space Force now has “guardians,” Vice-President Mike Pence said Friday in announcing the name chosen for the new military personnel. The guardians, said Pence, will “ensure that America remains as dominant in space, and from space as we are on land and sea and air.”

All we need are a few good hackers.

And for current politics in general, see:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/12/18/telnaes-trump-republican-rats-cartoon/?arc404=true