Who's to blame for the DNC email hack?

Is Putin to blame? Trump? Guccifer?
Nope. Neither are to blame. The only one to blame is the DNC.

The Democratic National Committee was warned last fall that its computer network was susceptible to attacks but didn’t follow the security advice it was given, according to three people familiar with the matter...
“Shame on them. It looks like they just did the review to check a box but didn’t do anything with it,” said Ann Barron-DiCamillo, who was director of US-Cert, the primary agency protecting U.S. government networks, until last February. “If they had acted last fall, instead of those thousands of e-mails exposed it might have been much less.”
The assessment by Good Harbor Security Risk Management, headed by the former Clinton and Bush administration official Richard Clarke, occurred over two months beginning in September 2015, the people said...
The review found problems ranging from an out-of-date firewall to a lack of advanced malware detection technology on individual computers, according to two of the people familiar with the matter. The firm recommended taking special precautions to protect any financial information related to donors and internal communications including e-mails, these people said.
The DNC paid $60,000 for the assessment, according to federal filings.

Since the Clinton email scandal came out 6 months earlier, there was no excuse to ignore email security recommendations.
It's past time to take some responsibility.

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detroitmechworks's picture

that Bernie was illegally accessing their data when he pointed it out.

And of course, fixing it would also have required their operatives to learn a WHOLE NEW way to hide their activities, and who has time to train new operatives? Fuck it, they probably thought, use what we have, and we can blame it on somebody else if it cocks up...

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

edg's picture

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detroitmechworks's picture

And now I present a pictorial representation of the Media reacting to the issues.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvhTwefXcMs]

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

TheOtherMaven's picture

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

for the shoot-em-up in Dallas.

There was really nothing better to take the American mind off of what Comey had just said. Had the shoot-out not continued, they would have had nothing else for the Sunday shows but Comey.

As it is, surprisingly little media attention on the Comey statement, considering how utterly shocking it was.

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MsGrin's picture

That one is the VAN - the V is for voter, but I don't know the rest of the acronym. The VAN contains VOTER INFORMATION, and it will say if voters are donors because that information would be added in. It also keeps track of which elections voters show up for. I don't know if they collect the same info for all 50 states, but in my state they have bday, address, and social security number, so um, not something most voters want released to the world.

There is a contractor who runs the VAN to the specifications of the DNC, so the buck does stop with the DNC when fire walls fall and all...

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

Slightkc's picture

Do you mean the DNC had TWO separate systems that were both hacked?! Or, were they sharing one box and different drive designators? If they were separate, any idea where the other DNC box was kept -- the one Bernie was accused of breaking into...?

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they wouldn't have needed to protect their server because they'd have had nothing to hide.

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“ …and when we destroy nature, we diminish our capacity to sense the divine,and understand who God is, and what our own potential is and duties are as human beings.- RFK jr. 8/26/2024

GreatLakeSailor's picture

that they forgot they have to hide it.

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Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.

Hillbilly Dem's picture

Your post is 100% correct.

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"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey

riverlover's picture

That is what piles of money can do with no watchdog. A parrot could have been in charge.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

The Dems are moving into Republican territory.

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Gjohnsit posted this diary at LOF. The responses so far are comparing him to someone accusing rape victims of deserving it because they wear short skirts. The massively offensive inappropriateness of this comparison will go unremarked there by those so eager to see sexism in any criticism of Hillary.

Anything to ignore the content of those emails. The Denial Machine is working overtime at the DNC. One more way we know the Clintons are in charge: scandals, scandals everywhere and professional victim posing as their only defense.

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Please help support caucus99percent!

would be walking into a dark alley with $100 bills falling out of your pockets.
When someone points that out, you just shrug.

Maybe people don't understand the internet?

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terriertribe's picture

Convenience is where it's at, don't you know?

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dervish's picture

anybody who votes for Jill Stein is sexist. They've gone off the deep end. What does LOF stand for, that's a new abbreviation for me, although I assume it means TOP.

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"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

TheOtherMaven's picture

A parody on "Little Green Footballs", which for the longest time was a near-parody (except they weren't joking) of a wingnut website.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

detroitmechworks's picture

against one of the most Liberal, Progressive, Feminist and all around nicest guys I know on Twitter... Just because he DARED to challenge an assertion that if you weren't a woman you couldn't understand why voting for Hillary was the only thing feminists could do.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

MsGrin's picture

last fall. Had me kinda thunderstruck initially. Hillary Bros, I guess. Left 'em over there to fester.

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

accusing Trump of endangering national security for his statement that maybe Russia can find her missing 30K emails. Seriously, with a straight face they are saying it and the freaking media is reporting it.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

These people step on more rakes than Marco Rubio. With Congress salivating to get Hillary up there to grill her about lying to Congress about her emails, Dems want to bring up endangering national security?

They don't play that blame shifting game nearly as well as the Republicans do. They're going to lose that one.

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detroitmechworks's picture

I guess it was ever since Hillary famously Declared:

L'etate, C'est Moi.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

pswaterspirit's picture

I can imagine the Trump folks are laughing. I read this both here and over at GOS. They are certainly humor less and dramatic about Trumps tweet which appears to me to be just another of his stupid snark retort tweets.

At any rate they are going she won't because half her voters will drop dead from stress before the election. Really how long can you run around screaming the sky is falling before you finally just keel over. November can not arrive soon enough.........

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detroitmechworks's picture

Don't you know that Many Hillary Voters have Heart Conditions and that is a VERY real threat that mean names and actually pointing out facts will TRULY KILL THEM?

You are clearly unhinged and insane, and must immediately show that you are contrite by declaring that you didn't mean it and are in fact voting for Hillary, like any reasonable person.

And if that doesn't work, I'm a Disabled African-American, Veteran, Gay, Trans-Woman Gypsy Jew who will be LITERALLY KILLED if you don't vote for her.

/snark

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

edg's picture

Don't you know people of color suffer more heart disease than whites? Why do you hate black people and want them to die?

/snark

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terriertribe's picture

If the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.

L'etate, C'est Moi.

She does seem to have expanded that to include President-to-be.

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Slightkc's picture

Unitary Executive Presidency?

I remember WE all called it the "Imperial Presidency..." and it seems to me that's exactly what Hillary has in mind. It's always been said this country wouldn't be ruled over by a King. Guess she figures "Queen" isn't "King" so it's all good....

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davidincleveland's picture

show they're putting on in the Hard Rain Theater! Act I (the Bold Marauders proffer) will last for the next 104 days. Then Act II (the Lame Cthullu session) will be a possible 55 days long, and will undoubtedly drive people to Absinthe; I've got those futures too.. I'm rich! RICH..

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edg's picture

My investment in Alcoa aluminum foil is paying off handsomely. Tinfoil hat usage among Democrats is through the roof!!

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pswaterspirit's picture

Slay me Smile Donald Trump won't need to worry about a wall Mexico will gladly build one and even pad our side so we don't hurt ourselves.

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on Bat Shit (crazy) and a leverage short position on common sense.

My guess is that I'm not going to have to sell for another four years.

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'Treason'? Critics savage Trump over Russia hack comments

Donald Trump's call on Russia to hack Hillary Clinton's emails has shocked, flabbergasted and appalled lawmakers and national security experts across the political spectrum, with one saying it was "tantamount to treason."
Few would argue Wednesday that what the Republican presidential nominee said will directly cause Russia to conduct more cyber-espionage against the U.S. than it already is doing. But several described Trump's statements as dangerous for America's global standing. Some echoed the Clinton campaign in calling the comments a threat to national security.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/trump-russia-clinton-emails-treaso...
Follow us: @politico on Twitter | Politico on Facebook

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

what a bunch of bullshit. Shocked! Flabbergasted! Appalled! Oh the vapors! What's sad is there's people out there that believe this shit. "Dangerous for America's global standing." Here's a tip for ya msm. Most of the fucking world despises us. We may have "global standing" but it's not in a good way. My wife said the other day, "what do think about Russia giving out these emails?" as she was reading one of the pro clinton articles. I told her it was Wikileaks that released them first off and second off this is like a guy that gets busted for driving under the influence then blames the cop for pulling him over. He wails on and on about the bad cop so you won't pay attention to the fact he was driving drunk.

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snoopydawg's picture

Because he asked Russia to find her missing emails.
But the real kicker is that they are pissed at Russia for interfering with our elections. The irony of that is astounding because the US interferes with other country's elections all the time.
That place becomes more delusional every day.
I can't believe how much it has changed since I joined and what the long time members used to find objectionable is now okay because it's Obama and Hillary doing those things.
Simply amazing.

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The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt

Clinton had her hands all over the overthrow of President Zelaya of Honduras. And we all know how that turned out...

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Borkrom's picture

So in theory of her campaign and supporters now say her personal emails are national security? So which is it:

1) Her deleted emails were personal as claimed- no big deal, but they are accusing Trump of a big deal and potential treason- false accusation
2) Or her emails were not personal and she lied to FBI and everyone else about the nature of them- bad for her that pesky honesty thing
3) Or she should have used the government approved secured network for her email servers to prevent this security breach- now even more careless if the Russian hacked her servers because she can not protect our past and future secrets

Just no good will come of this stupid argument and accusation. Her campaign is so inept and Trump just painted them into a corner.

I included a video of Hillary and her campaign manager (Mook) discussing campaign strategy

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Slightkc's picture

Just no good will come of this stupid argument and accusation. Her campaign is so inept and Trump just painted them into a corner.

I believe Trump is too stupid and caught up in only himself to even realize he could corner her on this. What's even MORE amazing is that Rove, et. al., are keeping their mouths shut!

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I'm shocked.

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featheredsprite's picture

I suspect that a LOT of different countries have copies of those emails.

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Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.

riverlover's picture

except here in the USA. Thanks politicos, thanks press.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

Slightkc's picture

Between all the hacking that has been done on government and military computers up to now (my info has been stolen in at least 3 of those hacks!).... and

thanks to all the "Privatization" and "off-shoring" of not only essential government services (like the IRS), both Fed and State, but also by all those corporations looking for the cheapest bang for their bucks with OUR raw information in those databases exposed to everyone worldwide...

I'm convinced the entire world knows more about the American people as a whole, as well as everything that happens on all levels of government and corporate than any regular American would ever dare HOPE to know. And I don't see it changing anytime soon.

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The media and some Republicans are saying that. I heard, "Hey Russia, if you have those e-mails, do us all a favor and let us see them." Everybody seems to have heard, "Hey Russia, help me beat Hillary".

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Democrats, we tried to warn you. How is that guilt and shame working out?

MsGrin's picture

He says they absolutely have all the emails. I guess Comey didn't ask for them.

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

President She?

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wilderness voice's picture

For those who don't know him he published a book about his personal experience working for Bush after 9/11. After he told Bush Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11 Bush said, "wrong answer".

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and would never work together.

Osama, a religious ascetic; Saddam a secular libertine who, with his sons, indulged himself in every respect. Saddam could have cared less about Islam.

Besides that, Saddam bowed and scraped to the US. He asked us before he invaded Kuwait to try to take back land that had supposed belonged to Iraq. He was not going to risk his life, his riches and his power to blow up two buildings.

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Despite me following the news pretty much all day every day nobody has been reporting this. Yet I have heard or read the Russian (government sponsored) hacker speculation numerous times.

The DNC sure is an expert at information suppression/selective news cycle infusion.

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“The first duty of a man is to think for himself”

Steven D's picture

prevaricating, distracting, bullshitting - yeah they have that part down pat.

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

"It is a known fact that the Russian government is behind the hacking and leaks" Really ? A known fact ? If that's the case, then what's the big deal with Trump asking them to release the e-mails ?

This whole thing is a farce. But it has drowned out the obvious, Hillary and her lackies at the DNC rigged the election.

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MsGrin's picture

(am I remembering the names correctly?) are Russian individuals or groups which claimed they got data about Trump out of the DNC some months ago.

Meet Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear, Russian groups blamed for DNC hack

They have not taken responsibility for the material in the material released by Wikileaks.

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

“With Fancy Bear we have medium level confidence it’s GRU, which is Russia’s military intelligence agency, and with Cozy Bear we have low level confidence it's FSB, the Russian federal security service," he says.

(from your link of CSM)

Medium level confidence of a corporate internet security firm is known fact, while scheduling three non-prime time debates is conspiracy theory...but I digress.

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boing boing's picture

Who was to blame for the hacked server was the question. Answered that none of the above . .? Why aren't the expert on hacks agreeing with you? CICI Pizza was just hacked yesterday and over 200000 identifications may be at risk. Are we going to blame CICI? Did someone advise them that their servers were at risk. Maybe or no. Hackers who are experts have even hacked into some Federal Government servers so the DNC, even though some anecdotal verbage says they were warned, is just as vulnerable as some highly secure servers.

" " "CiCi’s Pizza, an American fast food business based in Coppell, Texas with more than 500 stores in 35 states, appears to be the latest restaurant chain to struggle with a credit card breach. The data available so far suggests that hackers obtained access to card data at affected restaurants by posing as technical support specialists for the company’s point-of-sale provider, and that multiple other retailers have been targeted by this same cybercrime gang.

Who then is to say that the Russians, the Trump campaign or some unknown entity didn't do this for fun? What ever or whoever did the deed, it showed vividly, what a pig pen wallow Debbie Wasserman Schultz's tenure actually let the DNC evolve into.

DWS had been a disaster long before this debacle and I think it was way past time but much of the damage can never be undone. The sad fact is that HRC, as a FRIEND, made another dumb mistake by trying to soften the dump of debbie, by giving her a tiny cookie. But wait till the election is finished, and if HRC is POTUS, DWS will get a cushy job in her administration.

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DefCon is a hackers convention. The Wall of Sheep is a big board at the convention with information about you.

link

The Wall of Sheep is an interactive demonstration of what can happen when network users let their guard down. We passively observe the traffic on a network, looking for evidence of users logging into email, web sites, or other network services without the protection of encryption. Those we find get put on the Wall of Sheep as a good-natured reminder that a malicious person could do the same thing we did . . . with far less friendly consequences.
...
What are a few of the most crazy things you have seen while sniffing traffic?

We watched someone's girlfriend breakup with them live over the wire. (She was being pretty heinous -- Comedy!)
Someone decided it would be a good idea to file their taxes while at Defcon. (We disagree)
A well respected author and authority in the security community decided to share their unpublished book (and their bank statements) with us by not using SSL. (Great book btw. We still give them a hard time for this)
One of the hacking communities "Network" professionals logged into their vanity domain to later become a sheep of the year.
Press, press, and more press...
Someone "privately" IM'ing a friend about coming out. News flash... You out yourself if you speak "privately" without encryption...

History

A long time ago in what seems like a Defcon far, far away... A number of security minded attendees were sitting around a table enjoying a few drinks while sniffing traffic.

During a conversation one of the people around the table said "Wow look at this guy, this is just sad".. then another person said "Wow, look at this one".. of course this became a challenge to the others to find someone with security even more pathetic than that guy, so it became a bit of a one-upping game.

After a while, someone said "Wow, there so many!" then moments later another person said "they're like sheep!". Which is when we dubbed people with lax/miss-configured/etc. security "sheep" or "sheeple"

Yes, they really were like sheep and there were more than we could count.

We decided it would be fun & funny to put the peoples names & passwords on a piece of paper then draw a picture of a sheep next to their name as a wake-up call to the sheep in an attempt to change the behavior.

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edg's picture

I'm a computer nerd. Companies that accept credit cards for purchases are required to follow PCI-DSS security protocols. Proper application of the protocols ensure customer personal and financial information are never at risk. CICI was not in compliance. They were storing full credit card data in unencrypted fashion (actually, best practice is to not store credit card data at all; let the processing bank handle it) and had not implemented a retail POS security solution like that provided by RE|Security and other vendors. So, yes, they are to blame.

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contributed to this? The "backdoor" for example which could be used by other hackers too....
Etc etc....

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terriertribe's picture

HRC and DNC servers were compromised by arrogance not technologically advanced attackers.

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Slightkc's picture

With all the data and metadata they're hoovering, how come THEY can't tell us unequivocally who hacked the DNC's server? Surely they were monitoring and hoovering it, as well, right?

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otherwise.

Bush "won" in 2000? It is Nader's fault (never mind Dem party shutdown protests against the sham FL recount. Even Bill f*cking Clinton called for protests.
Iraq war? It is Naders fault. Never mind Clinton admin paved way for the same through sanctions. And top Dems like Hillary, Biden etc did squat to stop it.
And on and on it goes....

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Hillary, Biden etc did squat to stop it

They voted for it, as did Kerry, and Her gave a speech carried by TV saying how absolutely necessary it was.

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that DNC people laughed off at the fact that DNC & RNC servers have security gaps. Can't find it now. Will post if I find it. Or maybe someone else have already done so.

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Bollox Ref's picture

the Genius of the DNC and Her Royal Clintonness.

We should abase ourselves forEVAH!

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

Blinds us from seeing it.

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Democrats, we tried to warn you. How is that guilt and shame working out?

Just saw an article delving into the actual contents of the email. Remember Sander supporters said the DNC was gaming state parties taking monies and then diverting to Clinton. All this talk of down-ticket races getting money is looking like a lot of bullshit. I can understand the Putin theories. I think Hillary and staff know what is those emails. I suspect from her emails, she was discussing the Clinton Foundation and pay-to-play.

Link to politico article: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/dnc-leak-clinton-team-deflected-st...

PHILADELPHIA — Leaked emails show the Democratic National Committee scrambled this spring to conceal the details of a joint fundraising arrangement with Hillary Clinton that funneled money through state Democratic parties.
But during the three-month period when the DNC was working to spin the situation, state parties kept less than one half of one percent of the $82 million raised through the arrangement — validating concerns raised by campaign finance watchdogs, state party allies and Bernie Sanders supporters.

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Beanie and his supporters for not helping to elect Dems and the whole time he had been speaking at Dem party fundraisers throughout his tenure.
Pitiful.

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Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

Of course, state parties remained totally objective even though the DNC was behind Hillary and the DNC promised state parties Hillary money. No need to fret about the discrepancy between exit polls and actual votes. Nothing to see here. In fact, just forget the entire past year.

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shaharazade's picture

as security in this temporal world we all live in. It's a understandable human construct to need to want security but face it it does not exist. Why rush into giving consent least secure reality I can think of because 'this is the world as we find it'. How many psycho worlds has humanity faced and pushed back. Lots. Reality especially political is a human construct and this one sucks and isn't working so let it go and move on.

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And even that is less interesting to me than the disclosure that the DNC coordinated with media to help defeat Bernie Sanders.

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