(Small editor note: some of these links are probably a repeat from previous posts, but I'm sharing this with friends outside C99 who haven't seen those posts. So that would be the reason. Some of them... well some of them deserve a repeat anyway.)

So as is the way of things another rant triggered by a comment from one of my Democrat friends by the name of Andy, who after posting a delightful little screenshot of a CNN article about the ongoing . . . ahem . . . RUSSIA!!!ONEELEVEN!(TM democratic party 2016) investigations going on, and not the unsourced drek itself. (http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/22/politics/us-officials-info-suggests-trump-...) posed this question to me.

Jesse, you're not bothered by what's happening?

Let's get into that.
-----

Aren't I bothered?

sly smile growing

Pray tell Andy, exactly what am I supposed to be “bothered” by?

A report that says right at the top.

https://www.us-cert.gov/sites/default/files/publications/JAR_16-20296A_G...

“This report is provided “as is” for informational purposes only. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not provide any warranties of any kind regarding any information contained within.”

With nary a mention of the “evil” (now that they are revealing the dirty laundry of your side) wikileaks inside it? Though it does contain a 7 out of 13 pages detailing basic network security, good info to have, if a bit short on somehow blaming Russia for causing all your election woes.

But of course there's also the more recent “smoking gun 2.0” we could call it perhaps, in the form of the NIC report, which clearly shows what dastardly plotters those Russians truly are!

You know by spending a majority of this report with the damming evidence of how RT brainwashed us all! By using a show that's been *GASP! Off the air for years! And DOUBLE GASP! The horror of giving the GREENS! Air time, and reporting about OCCUPY! Whatever shall we do! Doom! Horror! Dog and cats living together!

Ahem. Sorry got a little worked up there. Though to be fair you would also think they'd be a little more original, and current. As FAIR points out. http://fair.org/home/us-government-tries-and-fails-to-play-media-critic-...

-----
“Indeed, the most bizarre part about the release was that it dedicated considerable effort—approximately 40 percent of the report’s content—to the Kremlin-financed Russia Today cable network. Skimming the PDF, one could easily miss the notation buried at the bottom of page six that this section was, in fact, cut and pasted from a 2012 paper on RT from the Open Source Enterprise, a federal intelligence office “dedicated to collecting, analyzing and disseminating publicly available information of intelligence value” (Secrecy News, 10/28/16).

It’s unclear why the DNI, with a budget of $53 billion, couldn’t borrow an intern from the Atlantic Council or the Institute of Modern Russia or the Foreign Policy Research Institute or the dozens of other think tanks dedicated to hand-wringing over the Russian “information war” to update a crucial section of its hugely consequential report.”
-----

If our intelligence agencies are doing the high school equivalent of copying the back of the book the day before the book report is due, you'll pardon me if I question their “proof” Though to be fair they are learning. This time they waited till Appendix B at the end to say, “Judgments are not intended to imply we have proof that shows something to be a fact.”

But you can trust us, clearly we know exactly what Russia is up too! I mean we have more proof I obviously should be “bothered” by.

You do?

Yes! Given to us by a private security firm!

Why is that?

Cause we (the DNC) never allowed the FBI to actually psychically access our hacked servers (And why Andy are you not bothered by that if you want proof? Are you not a bit concerned that the people now investigating the crime weren't allowed to see where it occurred?) But we did give them a great report on what our guys found!

I'll let the intercept break that down for me.

https://theintercept.com/2016/12/14/heres-the-public-evidence-russia-hac...

Though i'll share a quote.

----------
consider the fact that CrowdStrike describes APT 28 and 29 like this:
Their tradecraft is superb, operational security second to none and the extensive usage of “living-off-the-land” techniques enables them to easily bypass many security solutions they encounter. In particular, we identified advanced methods consistent with nation-state level capabilities including deliberate targeting and “access management” tradecraft — both groups were constantly going back into the environment to change out their implants, modify persistent methods, move to new Command & Control channels and perform other tasks to try to stay ahead of being detected.

Compare that description to CrowdStrike’s claim it was able to finger APT 28 and 29, described above as digital spies par excellence, because they were so incredibly sloppy. Would a group whose “tradecraft is superb” with “operational security second to none” really leave behind the name of a Soviet spy chief imprinted on a document it sent to American journalists? Would these groups really be dumb enough to leave cyrillic comments on these documents? Would these groups that “constantly [go] back into the environment to change out their implants, modify persistent methods, move to new Command & Control channels” get caught because they precisely didn’t make sure not to use IP addresses they’d been associated before? It’s very hard to buy the argument that the Democrats were hacked by one of the most sophisticated, diabolical foreign intelligence services in history, and that we know this because they screwed up over and over again.
----------

Just a thought, and an article like many others...

That.
https://theintercept.com/2016/12/10/anonymous-leaks-to-the-washpost-abou...

Call.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/01/09/allegations-against-russia-less-c...

Out.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/03/06/have-you-now-or-have-you-ever-bee...

The lies and lack of evidence,
https://theintercept.com/2016/10/11/in-the-democratic-echo-chamber-incon...

While pointing out the dangers of the Democrats buying into the hype. And the mob mentality group think you're guilty of being part of right here. Look at yourself Andy, you and the Mrs. Allegations of Treason, calls to lock him up, posting any unsubstantiated claim full of unverified sources as “proof” that Trump and Russia are out to get our way of life.

To the point where we have gone so far round the bend the Democrats are now not only trusting but welcoming into the fold the CIA? *Samuel Jackson voice* “The C..I..mother****ing A?!”

Meanwhile...

Democrats: “Welcome Deep state! So nice to see you, how can you help us take down Democracy here?”

https://theintercept.com/2017/01/11/the-deep-state-goes-to-war-with-pres...

The hypocrisy level, I can't even...
The bay of pigs invasion CIA?
The Iran-Contra CIA?
The lets get involved meddling in Honduras and Chile (because it's all right when we meddle in other countries affairs) CIA?
The CIA that just lied us into Iraq CIA?
That's who you want on your side?

But hey if you want to trust the CIA, let's ask them what they say about dem Russians!
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/no-smoking-gun-on-russia...

Jesus Christ... And the fun part? Where have I heard all of this before? I could go put Hillary Clinton + Benghazi into Google and odds are I'd find the EXACT. SAME. THING. The only difference is which name do I put in the mad libs under country and political figure.

Again, stop sounding like a birther. You know what bothers me? That! And the fact you and the rest of your party either don't have a god damn clue what your end game is, or don't seem to care so long as you take down Trump. Meanwhile since I seriously doubt you'll take the time to read any more “ridiculous” Articles, let me share a few other quotes from the above links, tell me if you see a trend.

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Most important of all, the more serious the claim is — and accusing a nuclear-armed power of directly and deliberately interfering in the U.S. election in order to help the winning candidate is about as serious as a claim can get — the more important it is to demand evidence before believing it. Wars have started over far less serious claims than this one. People like Lindsey Graham are already beating their chest, demanding that the U.S. do everything in its power to punish Russia and “Putin personally.”
Nobody should need an explainer about why it’s dangerous in the extreme to accept such inflammatory accusations on faith or, worse, based on the anonymous assurances of intelligence officials, in lieu of seeing the actual evidence.

Even the NSA will commit only to “moderate” confidence in what millions of Democrats will now stake their lives (and potentially everybody else’s) on. Former top NSA expert on this stuff William Binney swears the claims are utter nonsense. IP addresses produced as supposed evidence turn out in at least many cases to have nothing to do with Russia at all, much less the Russian government.

A second example is this: Those in the U.S. government pushing for greater cold, if not hot, war with Russia, with increased desperation during these next two weeks will be benefitting weapons profiteers and perhaps “news” profiteers, but just about nobody else, while risking incredible death and destruction. If I were an “intelligence” agency, I would “assess” with “high confidence” that corruption was afoot. And I’d get 16 friends to join me in calling that “assessment” a “report” if it helped you to take it seriously.

So the latest attempt to nail perfidious Moscow is, to my mind, yet another mish-mash of soft facts combined with plenty of opinion and maybe even a bit of good old Cold War-style politics. A lot of sometimes wild speculation and judgments based on fragmentary information taken together are not a good basis for determining foreign policy, particularly if one is dealing with a powerful foreign state that is heavily armed with nuclear weapons and ballistic-missile delivery systems.
-----

You know what also “bothers” me Andy? The fact your side is currently busy doing the high school equivalent of poking the hornet's nest with a stick. Except they don't have nukes. So again direct question, answer it if you can. Since you've already dodged it once.
What is the endgame of openly and directly provoking Russia in this quest to take down Trump?

And don't pretend that we aren't either, there's more then enough evidence on that front too, from Obama's sanctions on the way out, to us military buildup along their borders. (https://www.thenation.com/article/the-united-states-and-nato-are-prepari...) And that's of course before we propped up an actual Nazi over in the Ukraine

https://theintercept.com/2015/02/27/clapper-calls-arming-ukrainian-force...

Ah but I forget Russia bad, so these guys are good. Right?

But I digress...

After all we are getting off topic with pesky international affairs and all, let's keep it topical, the election, that evil ruskie influence. But let's look at that from a different angle. A little game we can call all all the things Russia didn't do.

For instance...

Russia didn't cause the Clinton camp to neglect it's ground game.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/michigan-hillary-clinton-trump-232547

RT wasn't the ones giving Trump unlimited free air time.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/upshot/measuring-donald-trumps-mammot...

Russia didn't suggest elevating Trump.
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/796222841612042240?lang=en

Russia didn't push for the TPP (before being against it)
https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/8452
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/hillary-clinton-trade-deal-229381

Russia didn't push fracking round the world.
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/09/hillary-clinton-fracking-...

Russia didn't suggest you should have a public and a private position.
https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/927#attachments

Russia didn't fail to prosecute a single banker or for that matter reveal anything said in the speeches to said bankers.
http://www.npr.org/2016/10/15/498085611/wikileaks-claims-to-release-hill...

Which of course was totally different and fine to hide, unlike the calls for Trumps tax returns, cause “What is he hiding!”

Russia didn't engage in a blatant campaign of bias during the primaries.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/wikileaks-emails-show-dnc-favored-hi...

Russia didn't help DWS go from disgrace one day to failing to the top of Clinton's campaign the next.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jul/24/debbie-wasserman-schultz...

Russia didn't feed debate questions.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/mar/17/donna-brazile-admits-lea...

Russia didn't engage in an active breaking of the parties own rules by locking out Bernie delegates as Roberta Lange did in Nevada.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPIk_2mfEi4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTfBnxBARGs

Russia didn't have RT spreading outright lies about violence.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/05/18/the-faux-fracas-in-nevada-how-a-r...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvG-vOQ5b3U

Or spreading fabricated narratives of sexism where none existed. As media hack Joy Reid did with a delightful bit of fake indignation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhm92JzIRXM

Jimmy Dore's take on it is a gem too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFzSvbfhVaw

Russia didn't hire an army of media trolls to go out and smear Sanders across the internet. Though creating fake accounts to create fake support, how Potemkin of her. Or classic Hillary given her enthusiasm gap.

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-clinton-digital-trolling-20160506-...
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/king-hillary-clinton-paying-tro...
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/correct-the-record-...
https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/04/hillary-clintons-super-pa...

Funny, I wonder why it was that when everyone's darling corporate who..ahem...ratings shilling..ahem...media “pundit” Racheal Maddow was breathlessly blowing a Huff Po hit piece about this out of proportion. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-fake-news-russia_us_5...(oh those poor duped Bernie voters) Nary a mention of Brock, who hit the scene at the exact same time, could be found in her “reporting”
Wonder why?

Russia didn't tell me single payer would never ever happen.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hillary-clinton-single-payer-health-care-wil...

Russia didn't say there was a special place in hell if I didn't back the party approved chosen one.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/06/madeleine-albright-campa...

Russia wasn't selling undocumented chemical weapons
http://www.ibtimes.com/hillary-clintons-state-department-increased-chemi...

Russia also wasn't pushing more weapons out the door with govt approved sales to countries with open pocketbooks. To the tune of Obama's State dept selling more weapons then even W.
http://www.ibtimes.com/clinton-foundation-donors-got-weapons-deals-hilla...

Russia wasn't accepting the endorsements of known war criminals.
https://www.democracynow.org/2016/8/11/headlines/clinton_embraces_endors...
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/paul-wolfowitz-may-vote-clinton-22...
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/02/hillary-clinton-kissinger-va...

Russia's warhawk attitude didn't level another middle eastern country (one of seven peace prize winner Obama bombed) to get rid of a dictator and cause untold human suffering with a little help from our proxy extremists on the ground.

(?)
http://www.salon.com/2016/03/02/even_critics_understate_how_catastrophic...

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/04/12/libya-obama-admits-clintons-...

No not that one.

(?)
http://yournewswire.com/clinton-email-we-must-destroy-syria-for-israel/

Yes that one, all so we can get to the real war we want to fight of course, at the behest of the only other country that's caused as much harm of course, gotta win Florida after all right?

For the record Andy, if you asked me which of our two corporate owned war mongering parties would be more likely to get us into a war, I would hands down still say the Democrats. Another reason I'm proud of my protest vote to Stein, not voting for a single other Democrat this time, and why I refuse to have anything to do with your side right now. File it under things I'm “bothered” by again too.

Russia wasn't funneling money to Tony Podesta's (Brother to John) lobbying firm in an election year. . Oh wait that one WAS Russia, my mistake.
http://dailycaller.com/2017/03/06/exclusive-dem-super-lobbyist-podesta-g...

Not that we'll investigate these Russia ties of course, Democrats did them, they don't count.

And I must confess if you want to talk enforced loyalty to the party, these are my personal favorites.

Russia didn't block Bernie Sander's supporters from protesting at the convention. While using fake handmade signs
https://shadowproof.com/2016/07/28/democratic-convention-targets-delegat...

Russia didn't hire seat fillers to keep the Potemkin party propped up too.
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/07/30/while-publicly-seeking-unit...

Unity! Right?

Russia also didn't engage in wide spread misinformation, vote rigging, and outright fraud during the primary. And there was plenty of that well documented by friends of mine and yours. Which none of you bothered to care about, because TRRRUMMMPPP! But here's a personal short list.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW0bfSsdRbY

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/voters-given-wrong-ballots-in-arizon...

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/05/13/chicago-election-official-admits-...

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/04/justice-department-inquiry-a...

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/officials-investigating-why-126000-v...

http://heavy.com/news/2016/05/nevada-democratic-convention-what-happened...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xwa2vSqKPHY

https://www.nytimes.com/live/super-tuesday-2016-elections/bill-clinton-g...

Now have a moment of honesty all of you, if Trump had done that during the general, and shut a polling place down, or even gave the hint of doing so. How fast would those pearls be getting mauled?

But since it's the big dog? Eh We're good, do you want Trump?

Sigh....

But regardless let's get to my actual favorite.

Russia didn't write the leaked emails that showed us exactly what camp Clinton was doing.

So stop and think about that for a moment. I'll even humor you Andy. Let's say your position is correct. Even though we have no proof of a direct Russia to Wikileaks connection straight from the FBI's mouth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fekzj_62E6c

But lets make one, Putin got his fancy bears to sneak right in, hitting John Podesta with a phishing link any tech savvy tween would have known better then to click on. And MWAHAHA!

Now America, now you shall see the truth!

Wait what?

I will will show you exactly what your Democrat is doing!

So what you're saying is unlike the mainstream media here, which selectivity reports on stories, engages in media blackouts, and gets caught basically on the take for a single candidate.

https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/4097
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/oct/21/wikileaks-reveals-hillar...

You're going to help create a more informed electorate by letting us know actual positions?

Umm...yes..that is sinister is it not?

Some of us would call that democracy, thank you!

And that's the kicker of this whole thing when you break it down to the base argument that people forget amidst the hype and hyperbole. Which is this.

“We lost because 'Russia' leaked the emails that sabotaged Hillary's campaign and made people think less of her in the end.

But what does that really mean? It's the preposterous position you've put yourself in Andy.

“We lost because the American people found out exactly who Hillary Clinton is, regardless of who leaked it.”

Which is what you're trying to defend. So would it have been better if Wikileaks hadn't showed us all these stances? Maybe then we could have gotten things like 8 more years of bombing the mideast to hell and back with a new cold or hot war on the side? 8 more years where the economy is great if you have a 401k and shit for everyone else? 8 more years where health care costs aren't being solved by anyone? 8 more years of people like myself unable to start a family and having half my income go to rent thanks to the lack of a living wage?

You know, more of the same she promised. Cause the last 8 have been so wonderful.

I'd like to single out that last one for special mention, because here's something you and the rest of the watauga county dems, including Jesse if he gets past his arrogance at how I never picked up a clipboard (therefore I don't count) need to understand. Over a decade of fighting in that town, over a decade of carrying your water, over a decade of thinking you all were fighting for what's right, and over a decade where I couldn't afford to live in Boone IF I TRIED, and can barely afford living in Hendersonville now with two incomes!

You know what fucking bothers me Andy? You know why I'm so angry? You know why I have no problem turning these guns right back at you?

The fact that in that time I watched the Democrats betray every value they stood for, every person they should fight for, and every person who thought they were more then just another side of the coin that in the end will sell them out. While selling their souls on the altar of pragmatism and selling their integrity for the sake of an election. Ignoring everyone screaming at them that disaster is on the horizon, but who gives a damn, do you want Trump?

An when it blows up in your face, when the anger of that betrayal makes itself known by folks like me going full #demexit, it's our fault, oh if only we hadn't been such purists.

Oh if only you had given a damn, you know who created Trump, you know who let him get in?

People. Like. You. Who normalized corruption, vote fraud, and the win at any cost mentality, consequences be damned, as you alienated your base by putting up someone about as non progressive as they come and telling them “Where you gonna go? Vote blue no matter who!”

Alienated the future voters and the left by putting up basically more of the same that young people weren't interested in, and telling them you “Didn't need them”

And alienated the right / working class / everyone else, by refusing to even bother listening or debating them, flyover country, or shall we call it deplorastan perhaps didn't matter.

AKA the hypocrisy of limousine liberals like yourself who talk a good game, but talk is all it is.
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/06/23/liberal-elites-hate-left

As you rock your American privilege
http://www.newslogue.com/debate/328/CaitlinJohnstone

While becoming the very thing you claim to hate.
http://www.inquisitr.com/3598577/news-flash-democrats-youve-become-every...
http://www.oftwominds.com/blogjan17/fake-progressives1-17.html

And the sooner your rotting moribund party that as far as I'm concerned needs to die just as much as the Republicans realizes that, and decides to actually give a damn again, oh wait, tom perez, never mind.

Your party right now has no hope, no plan, and to be blunt no future if you think that this is how you move ahead. And if you don't want to believe me, how bout someone who actually is a Putin critic, but is saying the same.

https://theintercept.com/2017/03/07/leading-putin-critic-warns-of-xenoph...

Which again is also a request, stop emulating the worst of the Alex Jones loving conspiracy crackpot crap of the right, and stop being the mirror of the Benghazi brigade. To add another for pity's sake there's a petition on move on right now to shut the whole govt down till we get to the truth about Russia!

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/shut-down-and-investigate

Jesus, not even Gowdy was that bad people, give it a rest already! That's not Democracy, that's calling for a coup. . . Well then again you've already the CIA inside helping, so why not?

You want to win me back? Fight for me, show me an idea that works, but for the love of Christ stop thinking that saying “We're not as bad.” Or banking on the R's just imploding so you can win by default and insert another smooth talker full of Grace, Charm, and murdering 16 year olds with drones will be acceptable to me or anyone else again.
https://theintercept.com/2017/01/30/obama-killed-a-16-year-old-american-...

We're not going to be fooled anymore.