Don't be Ron Wyden

Trump dismissed the intelligence on Russia. When a reporter in New Jersey asked the president about the assessment that Russia wants him to win reelection and China wants him to lose, Mr. Trump said, "The last person that Russia wants to see in office is Donald Trump." When a reporter pointed out that's not what intelligence officials said, the president responded, "I don't care what anybody says."

  CBS

NOTHING is more fucking obvious.

Democratic Senator Ron Wyden was "shocked" by the torture intelligence and failed to use the floor, allowing the torture to continue unabated.  People died horribly because "shocked" Ron Wyden thought more of keeping his job than exposing the truth.

This week, I reviewed classified materials in the Senate’s Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility and received a similarly classified briefing on malign foreign threats to U.S. elections. I was shocked by what I learned — and appalled that, by swearing Congress to secrecy, the Trump administration is keeping the truth about a grave, looming threat to democracy hidden from the American people.

  Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut WaPo op-ed

It's not hidden at all. It's on TV and Twitter 24/7, and has skin the color of candied yams.

Russian intelligence operations have perfected the art of laundering distorted and fabricated narratives through media networks, covert hacking, international proxies and others to undermine democracies, attack the United States’ global image and silence criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

[...]

The sophisticated tactics and techniques described in the report make Moscow’s past interference and nefarious actions look like child’s play.

[...]

I understand the utility of a classification system that shields intelligence sources and methods. Responsibly limiting access to sensitive information is a critical tool to safeguard Americans and U.S. allies who collect the intelligence that informs critical national security decisions. Used appropriately, classifying certain information is essential to protecting the country.

But overly broad restrictions do the exact opposite. Unnecessary classification politicizes the national security apparatus and, in this case, keeps the American people in the dark about efforts by foreign adversaries to destroy the bedrock of the nation’s democracy: free and fair elections.

That's the last thing the party in power wants.

The Trump administration’s refusal to share with the American public any information about the Russian threat to the November election is simply unacceptable.

Hey, Obama kept quiet about it, too.

[C]lassified reports frequently include declassified summaries in recognition of the fundamental role transparency plays in a functioning democracy.

My Republican colleagues clearly know this, since they have recently requested the declassification of numerous documents related to the FBI investigation of possible links between Russia and the Trump campaign in 2016. The Trump administration has happily accommodated those requests. The White House has no problem with declassification when it protects the president’s interests.

[...]

On Wednesday, The Post reported that Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, is moving ahead with an investigation into presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s family using documents provided to the senator by the son of a former KGB officer. Johnson’s actions are of such concern to the CIA, according to news reports, that the agency has refused to brief him.

[...]

There is no excuse for perpetuating Russian disinformation in the U.S. Senate, just as there is there is no excuse for barring the American public from learning more about the genuine foreign threats to the November election. The Trump administration appears to be failing to take the danger seriously, failing to prepare adequately.

I can't believe people are still saying this instead of the truth, which is that the Trump administration is COUNTING on the threat.

Protecting the nation’s democratic values should be a bipartisan imperative. Those of us in Washington should not risk looking back and saying, if only we’d known, we could have done something. We do know. We can do something. It starts with sharing the truth.

Then do it. And start with the truth about the Trump administration's abetting the threat.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.