not the Russians?

When Democrat emails were recently leaked, word was that there were Russian fingerprints all over the job—telltale code that pointed toward foreign espionage and mischief. The conservative response to this has been that the media were constructing a "narrative" that pointed the finger at the Russians while at the same time trying to establish links between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, both of whom have publicly praised the other. These two narrative strands were supposed to slot into an even larger narrative: that Donald Trump is a traitor willing to sell out US interests to whichever foreign power flatters him the most.

There's no doubt in my mind that Trump, if he became president, would be a national-security nightmare, given his inability to control his own mouth. I also admit that I was leaning toward believing the Russian angle based on early reports that spoke with some authority about the electronic fingerprints associated with the DNC-email leak that was exposed by WikiLeaks. But now, it may be that the Russians are a giant red herring: this article claims that the email leak may have been the result of a Democrat staffer named Seth Rich.

If this is true, one has to wonder why Rich would leak these emails. Was he motivated by conscience? We'll never know: Seth Rich was shot in the back in northwest Washington, DC, exactly a month ago, on July 10, a little after 4AM. Some are calling this a random murder; others see this as yet another tick in what has been ominously labeled the Clinton Body Count. I'm not partial to wild-eyed conspiracy theories, but I will be interested to see what more turns up as the Seth Rich story develops. WikiLeaks is now offering a $20,000 reward to anyone who has information on Rich's death.