My Newest Reason Not to Believe the Russia Story

I wasn't going to get into this, but this is another thing that makes me extremely unlikely to trust the establishment story.

This story began last summer--the Washington Post, always excited at the chance to watch democracy die in darkness, published a story about it on June 14, 2016. The story accelerated in the fall, and massively accelerated in December and beyond. But all the talk was about emails and documents published by Wikileaks or Guccifer. For about eleven months, then, there was no mention whatsoever of Russians hacking into our voting software. In fact, that was one of the critiques I had of the story--they'd talk about an election "hack" and then turned out what they were really talking about was Hillary's emails, the DNC's emails, and John Podesta's emails being leaked and published by Wikileaks. That was, supposedly, the Russian election hack, tovarisch.

The fact that that's not what an election hack is, no matter who does it, but rather bears a closer resemblance to opposition research or even journalism, was often brought up by me and Henry among others. When the fuck did telling the truth about a politician become election fraud?

So, finally after about 11 months of pushing the "Russia hacked our elections because somehow they leaked actual true documents that reveal actual true conversations within the Democratic Party power structure to the general public" story, suddenly we get "Reality Winner" who risks her safety to leak a document that provides the public with no new information whatsoever, but does upgrade the establishment story to something that at least would be a hack if it were true. Still no evidence whatsoever. Why not? The two magic words: National Security.

It's the intellectual equivalent of dumping ketchup over rotten vegetables.

Here's the thing: I have no faith in somebody who cries wolf for 10-11 months, and then, when his cries don't have the desired effect on the townsfolk, starts alternating the cry of "Wolf!" with the cry of "Fire!" An actual intelligence agency with the capacities and resources of the NSA would have discovered that sort of hacking months before Reality Winner leaked a classified document. Did they discover it and keep it secret from the public? If so, why? They weren't shy about sharing their views with us on the DNC hack/Podesta phishing.

If they didn't discover it initially, why the hell did it take 9-10 months after they first got the idea that Russia was interfering with our elections to figure it out? I mean, the Washington Post published a story on this in June 2016, right? So presumably that means the NSA and maybe other intelligence agencies would have known about it previous to *that*? And it takes them until what, March 2017 to figure out there was a hack into our elections systems' software? Who the hell are these guys? I mean, I thought we were paying a lot of money for their services (whether we want them or not) and now we find out it takes them 10 months to figure out that "the Russians" are hacking our voting software, when they already knew 10 months ago, according to them, that "the Russians" were going to try to interfere in the election? You mean you knew they were going to try to interfere, but you didn't keep an eye on our electoral software? Preferably before and during the election? And immediately after the election, you didn't analyze our electoral software to see if there had been interference? I understand we're a big country, and there's a lot to analyze. But seriously, you were predicting Russian interference in June and you didn't figure out till what, the following March, that there had been interference in this country's electoral software?

Is this like when you know that "Bin Laden Determined to Strike Targets Within U.S." ahead of time, but somehow you colossally fuck up anyway?

Or is it more likely that the original OMG RUSSIA! story wasn't having the desired effect on the populace, and required an upgrade?

Thank you, Reality Winner, for delivering the patch. It's my sincere hope that you are an operative and not just a stupid person caught in the gears.

Now at least we have a hacking story that's about hacking. Still comprised of baseless claims, but hey! you can't have everything.

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that Russia had tried (but failed) to hack the voting machines, loads of people and media were repeating the Big Lie that "Russia hacked our election."

https://caucus99percent.com/content/big-lie-russia-interfered-us-preside...

AFTER the claim about the voting machines, many people scaled back to language like "Russia tried to meddle with our election." I've been finding that curious.

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@HenryAWallace
I have noticed it too.

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@Linda Wood

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@Linda Wood

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@Linda Wood

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Date of NSA reality Winner leak suggesting Russia accessed election software:

https://theintercept.com/2017/06/05/top-secret-nsa-report-details-russia...

TOP-SECRET NSA REPORT DETAILS RUSSIAN HACKING EFFORT DAYS BEFORE 2016 ELECTION
Matthew Cole, Richard Esposito, Sam Biddle, Ryan Grim
June 5 2017, 12:44 p.m...

Date of Comey hearing, including these questions and responses:

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/08/full-text-james-comey-trump-rus...

Full text: James Comey testimony transcript on Trump and Russia
By POLITICO STAFF 06/08/2017 11:14 AM EDT Updated 06/08/2017 01:48 PM EDT

… BURR: Do you have any doubt that Russia attempted to interfere in the 2016 elections?

COMEY: None.

BURR: Do you have any doubt that the Russian government was behind the intrusions in the D triple C systems and the subsequent leaks of that information?

COMEY: No, no doubt.

BURR: Do you have any doubt the Russian government was behind the cyber intrusion in the state voter files?

COMEY: No.

BURR: Are you confident that no votes cast in the 2016 presidential election were altered?

COMEY: I'm confident. When I left as director I had seen no indication of that whatsoever.

BURR: Okay. When did you become aware of the cyber intrusion?

COMEY: The first cyber — there was all kinds of cyber intrusions going on all the time. The first Russian-connected cyber intrusion I became aware of in the late summer of 2015.

BURR: And in that time frame, there were more than the DNC and the D triple C that were targets?

COMEY: Correct, a massive effort to target government and nongovernmental, near governmental agencies like nonprofits.

BURR: What would be the estimate of how many entities out there the Russians specifically targeted in that time frame?

COMEY: It's hundreds. I suppose it could be more than 1,000, but it's at least hundreds.

BURR: When did you become aware that data had been exfiltrated?

COMEY: I'm not sure exactly. I think either late '15 or early '16.

BURR: And did you, the director of the FBI, have conversations with the last administration about the risk that this posed?

COMEY: Yes.

BURR: And share with us, if you will, what actions they took.

COMEY: Well, the FBI had already undertaken an effort to notify all the victims, and that's what we consider the entities attacked as part of this massive spear-phishing campaign so we notified them in an effort to disrupt what might be ongoing, and then there was a series of continuing interactions with entities through the rest of '15 into '16, and then throughout '16, the administration was trying to decide how to respond to the intrusion activity that it saw.

BURR: And the FBI in this case, unlike other cases that you might investigate, did you ever have access to the actual hardware that was hacked, or did you have to rely on a third party to provide you the day that that they had collected?

COMEY: In the case of the DNC, and I believe the D triple C, but I'm sure the DNC, we did not have access to the devices themselves. We got relevant forensic information from a private party, a high class entity, that had done the work but we didn't get direct access.

BURR: But no content.

COMEY: Correct.

BURR: Isn't content an important part of the forensics from a counter-intelligence standpoint?

COMEY: It is but what was briefed to me by the people who were my folks at the time is that they had gotten the information from the private party that they needed to understand the intrusion by the spring of 2016.

The NSA Reality Winner leak was supposed to make this testimony believable. But it's not. He can say 1,000's, he can say no doubt, he can even say slam dunk. But what has been released to us as evidence is suggestive, never definitive, and his descriptions of the actual sequence of events concerning warning the "victims" is unconvincing, confusing, and like all of the innuendo in this saga, full of hot air.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Linda Wood Well, but if the story they want me to buy is true, doesn't that make them malignantly incompetent chumps? Why should we trust them with our national security? They keep saying "Oh, there's a threat. Well, we'll get to it. al-Qaeda/The Russians got their schedule, I got mine." Then suddenly, it's OMG they did what we thought they might do six months ago! Those Arab/Russian BASTARDS! KILL! KILL! Go to war IMMEDIATELY before it's TOO LATE!"

We're paying them how much to "keep us safe?"

That's taking the story on THEIR terms!

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
I'm laughing.

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snoopydawg's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
The DHS is now in charge of the elections going forward. I don't think that anything can go wrong with this, does anyone?

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There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

snoopydawg's picture

@Linda Wood
not just Russia and they didn't come to play until late in the summer of 2015?

there was all kinds of cyber intrusions going on all the time. The first Russian-connected cyber intrusion I became aware of in the late summer of 2015.

Why haven't we been told about the other attempts of trying to interfere with the election? Or what does Comey think those other intrusions were attempting to do?
Which other countries were doing cyber intrusions besides Russia and why haven't we heard about this instead of just the Russian attempt to interfere with the election, but as Comey stated, they didn't change one vote.

This is what should get through to people.

Russia didn't change one damned vote!

This means that Russia did not interfere with the election!
Say it with me. Russia did not interfere with the election. Done. Game over.

What did happen was the DNC put their thumbs on the primary and made sure that Hillary was the nominee.

Podesta tried to make sure that Bernie was eliminated from the primary.

The Clinton campaign colluded with the media to cover everything Trump said to make sure that the was the republican nominee and making him be the pied piper.

Hillary lost the election because of how the electoral college works. And she knew how it worked before she decided to run for president.

It doesn't matter how many more votes she received, she still is not the president of the United States of America because she lost the election because of electoral college!

These things are facts.
Russia interfered with the election is propaganda!
Another fact is the US and it's NATO allies are putting troops on the borders of countries that surround Russia and have been doing this for over a year. This happened during the Obama administration.

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There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

CB's picture

@snoopydawg
was not democratic. Nobody in the US wanted to listen to him.

Putin gives Americans a history lesson and explains why Hillary lost the election.
"If you lose, then you need to lose with dignity."

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snoopydawg's picture

@CB
even though Bernie received more votes than she did.

Hillary Clinton keeps losing. So how come she's winning?

Remember that Hillary locked up the delegates and the super delegates before she announced she was running for president.
Between the time she did that she was still getting paid to give speeches which is against the election rules. But rules don't apply to the Clintons. If they did, Bill would have been in trouble for interfering with the election at 4 polling places in Massachusetts.
His security detail kept people from parking close to the polling places and people didn't have time to wait in the longer lines to vote.
Plus he went inside one of them and told people to vote for his wife.

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There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

mimi's picture

@CB
the Americans were so ignorant about their own non-democratic electoral college system that they had to give a Putin "the pleasure to lecture them" about it.

Any ignoramus like me can understand that the electoral college is full of undemocratic shit. So, if the Democrats and Republicans and all the rest just don't give a shit about their electoral college system, they deserve to suffer under their own shit. Can't stand the whole discussion. It has been discussed since 2004 on TOP and now it's not even allowed to say a piep about it anymore.

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@snoopydawg
after the disaster of George W. Bush and the crisis of Donald Trump that the Democratic Party would spend all of its time trying to do away with the Electoral College. But no. Putin.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@snoopydawg @snoopydawg Hillary lost the election because she's such a crap candidate she couldn't secure enough electors, even with all the institutional advantages working in her favor. Even though she was running against a guy with an orange spray-on tan who was playing a slightly tweaked version of the Million Dollar Man character from the World Wrestling Federation.

And don't think that Donald doesn't know it, since he himself once closelined Vince McMahon and shaved his head, and as a result (and possibly due to his close friendship with Vince) is the first United States President to be in the World Wrestling Federation Hall of Fame.

Yes, before the Battle of the Billionaires happened in our general Presidential election, it happened in 2007, in Detroit, Michigan, at Wrestlemania 23.

No, Donald Trump was not exactly supposed to wrestle Vince McMahon. He and Vince sent champions into the ring to fight for them, like kings sending knights to joust. But whichever billionaire lost was going to get his head shaved, and, well...this happened:

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@lizzyh7 Good question.

I hope in a safe house on some lovely tropical beach. The alternative doesn't bear thinking about.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

I agree, they're just going with whatever might work. Throw something against the wall and see if it sticks.

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

@lizzyh7

Most of these many and varied attempts to blame the 2nd collapse of Hillary's Inevitable Coronation on a lengthy list encompassing virtually everyone/everything else, from the voters who owed Her their votes, to anyone who brought up documented facts about Her, to the very notion of democracy which permitted others to run against Her at all, have left brown stains and a stench, although the absurd and pre-disproven Russia!!! canard created also in the interest of starting their thought-to-be-lucrative 'limited' nuclear War On The World would leave nobody to mock Her throughout the history thereby made no longer possible.

If the Mad Bomber makes a 3rd run, though, (and should we all survive another 4 years) Her now has Homeland Security taking care of all such electoral arrangements for Her Royal Coronation (or that of anyone else TPTB choose) and voters really won't be necessary, at long last.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

earthling1's picture

"Can't blind 'em with brilliance,
baffle 'em with bullshit".

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

snoopydawg's picture

machines are this vulnerable, they would push for paper ballots again. Yes, I'm aware of 'the hanging chad' episode, but there has to be a better way to count the votes.

As gulfgal stated, even if Russia did hack the DNC, it isn't a reason to go to war over them. That's like saying they would go to war if Russia hacked my emails.

I love your analogy for how the story changed.

Here's the thing: I have no faith in somebody who cries wolf for 10-11 months, and then, when his cries don't have the desired effect on the townsfolk, starts alternating the cry of "Wolf!" with the cry of "Fire!"

The Reality Winner episode rings so false that I can't believe anyone could fall for it. Has she been asleep during the last decade, or what? She had to have heard what Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden went through. She can't be naive enough to think that if she printed off the information and sent it by usps and not think she wouldn't get caught.
Good lord, she was working at one of the NSA's spy contractors and had to know she shouldn't leave a trail!
SMDH.

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There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

Lookout's picture

“[Jeff Bezos] recently secured a $600 million contract from the CIA. That’s at least twice what Bezos paid for the Post this year. Bezos recently disclosed that the company’s Web-services business is building a ‘private cloud’ for the CIA to use for its data needs.”

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-20/cia-washington-post-and-russia-...

Another important fact is Reality Winter has plead NOT GUILTY. The assumption of guilt is from the NSA. You might want to read the transcript here:
https://theintercept.com/2017/06/14/intercepted-podcast-the-trump-mixtap...

here's one paragraph...

Now, this may seem like a minor point, but facts matter. And when you smear people — when you piece together innocuous bits of information and act as though they just exist in a straight line — it’s very damaging. People who are believing everything that the Trump Justice Department are saying in these affidavits, and saying, well, that must be the full story…that’s insane. That’s insane to just say, well, government assertion should just be treated as facts. So, I’m not speaking right now for The Intercept. And I believe in the integrity of the internal review that is being conducted right now at The Intercept, and I believe that in the end, we are going to be able to state clearly the facts as we understand them, and to be accountable to our readers and to be people who support our journalism.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Alligator Ed's picture

@Lookout How can anyone have faith in the Intercept again when they burned the patsy, even though the information she released is ridiculous in its non-information. More DNC bullshit.

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@Alligator Ed
there must be some money involved here. Why would a group like the Intercept release a document like that, such a thin, unsubstantiated hoax-like object. Are they being paid to do this? I know these journals must need money, but did they read it?

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Alligator Ed's picture

@Linda Wood we need the money. Being with the establishment pays a lot better than being truly independent.

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@Alligator Ed

Might they not have leaked this precisely to embarrass the propagandists who apparently thought that this nonsense would support the war-mongering party line?

If she's an operative, which seems the most likely scenario, they'll have to let her off somehow or other, fake her lock-up and identity, (the Orwellian latter already sounding faked) or sneak her out very early with a big enough pay-off and gag order that she won't leak the facts. Or otherwise dispose of her so that she can't talk. But this whole thing sounds like a madcap scheme out of a goofy old comedy - somehow the names of Lucy and Ethel spring to mind...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Linda Wood Bribes, threats, or both?

Kinda like Coffee, tea, or milk? for the modern age.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Alligator Ed Yeah, there's no good read to be put on this. Either they knew/thought she was an operative, in which case they're helping the establishment build narratives, or they knew/thought she was an innocent, in which case they burned her.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Unabashed Liberal's picture

'interference' in our elections.

As for why they fixated on Russia, I think that it has to do with setting up a plausible narrative (in their minds) for FSC's election loss, which they contend is 'through no fault of her own.' And, it's helpful that it's generally known that she and Putin had a very rocky relationship during her years as Secretary Of State.

Some of it may have had to do with this,

POLITICS

Why Putin Hates Clinton and Helped Trump Win
Eve Peyser, Mar 21 2017, 3:50pm

But things got worse?

Then a number of things really soured in the relationship—and this is where Hillary Clinton comes into play.

There were anti-government demonstrations in Russia following a parliamentary election in December 2011, and many observers think there was a lot of electoral fraud.

Shortly after the elections, Hillary Clinton made a statement saying—and I'm paraphrasing here—every citizen should have the right to have their vote counted and elections should be free and fair. Shortly thereafter, there were demonstrations in Moscow, the biggest demonstrations since the fall of the Soviet Union, and President Putin accused Hillary Clinton of fomenting this protest, in part because of her remarks about the election. Of course, she wasn't the only foreign leader to make these sorts of remarks, but the notion that this was being done in the service of the US State Department became a consistent theme for the Kremlin. . .

[Re-paragraphed for clarity/emphassis.]

Months ago, I posted a video of FSC literally mocking Putin in a public forum. (I believe that it was soon before she formally announced her run.) I think most folks would agree that this is not a very common occurrence amongst our political Elite, at least not in a 'public' setting.

Also, I've heard several talking heads (on CNN)/reporters (on XM) acknowledge that had she won in 2016, this entire 'Russia saga' would probably not have become a big deal. They claim that PBO didn't make a big deal of it at the time, because polls were showing that FSC would win, and that he was afraid that it might look like he was trying to influence the election (if he had pushed for an investigation during the election cycle).

Anyhoo, I totally agree with the points about how ludicrous it is/was to ridicule the fact that the American Public was allowed to see what went on at the DNC (beyond the curtain, so-to-speak), regarding the Podesta emails, etc.

In the end, I believe that the Russia Thing is a fabrication tailor made to fit the narrative that FSC was 'robbed' of the Presidency. And the purpose of that is to 'give her cover,' so that she won't become the object of derision if she should decide to make another--or THIRD try--in 2020!

Hey, I try to never underestimate the power, or deviousness of 'the Grifters!'

Biggrin

Mollie


"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."--Lao Tzu

"I think dogs are the most amazing creatures--they gi

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

jorogo's picture

throughout this whole "election" hacking mania are two of the three distinct steps to our system of representation, campaigns and elections, the third being what follows - governance.

While elections (voting and the vote counting process) and governance are both public government functions with and worthy of strict protections against interference, campaigns are private enterprises that lie far outside lawful regulation. The DNC has already offered their concurring legal opinion on that. Campaigns are the wild west of our system, where lies, distortions, diversions and all types of "interference" are accepted as normal. Even our Supreme Court has decided that money, as speech, cannot be regulated either as to how much or where from, even to include foreign funding.

For months now, we've been pounded with the idea that Russia interfered with our elections, when in fact the content of the accusations were of campaign interference, which, given how our system works, is neither unusual or a crime.

If the latest claim, the first of its kind, that Russia hacked actual elections systems are true, we have something to look at. But it's turning out to be, so far, another in a long series of evidence-free accusations. But now that the public has been whipped into a frenzy by months of empty accusations conflating elections with campaigns, evidence is no longer required. And that's a shame, because we do need to know the facts about any election (not campaign) interference.

Let those of us with reason take a step toward clarity by no longer referring to political campaigns as "elections", because they're not, and not at all similar or similarly protected. Try this on the next Russophobe who rattles on about election hacking..."Oh, you must be talking about the campaign. Tell me now, what is it that's illegal in a campaign?"

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"If I sit silently, I have sinned." - Mossadegh

@jorogo Like with the DNC email leak. A fact is that several people including Podesta got phished and their passwords were discovered. People keep using hacked and phished interchangeably. While they're related, one is not the same as the other and the continued use of hack to describe that situation implies things that we don't know to be true (and gives the victims cover for the embarrassment of falling for a phishing email.)

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Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Dr. John Carpenter I know, that's a real burr under my saddle too. I get seriously irritated every time people use the word "hack" to describe a phishing attempt. The words "hack," "hacking," and "hacker" are going the way of the words "terror," "terrorism," and "terrorist."

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@jorogo Excellent analysis and good advice.

Not election-hacking. Opposition research.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

You asked the question I've been asking. Is she an operative or just really bad at this whistleblower thing? The carelessness that I've read she exhibited almost seems like she was trying to get caught. But, I know I regularly blow people's minds by pointing out that I can track pretty much everything they're doing at work IT wise. (Not that I'd want to!) Seems no one reads the employee handbooks, because I've noticed there's always language in there to that effect. I would expect someone in her line of work would know that anyway.

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Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

Alligator Ed's picture

@Dr. John Carpenter

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The whole issue is a distraction from an embarrassing fact - take away either New York or L.A. (L.A. metro - you might have to add San Jose) and Hillary loses the popular vote as well. In fact, reduce her percentage to 60% in the city and she loses New York. The same would apply in several other states - Colorado (Denver) Nevada (Las Vegas) Illinois (Chicago) Minnesota (Minneapolis St Paul) and Virginia (Its share of the D.C. metro, though this runs counter to my point)
We all know about the racial divide between the parties, (and supposedly well to do white professionals, except in extreme red states) but the Democrats are an extreme geographical minority party - more so than the Republicans were in 2006, when the media was trumpeting its incipient demise, it's just that their geographical limitation is superficially more diffuse. Run down the list of American states and tell me how many a Democrat could do better than a Libertarian without a big city. (O.K., I'm exaggerating about the Libertarian thing)
The Democrats are as unrepresentative as the Republicans, but we are too busy whining about the Electoral College to admit that. Fix the problem, not a symptom.

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On to Biden since 1973

lotlizard's picture

@doh1304  
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/jun/19/americas-great-fallout-ru...

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@lotlizard
how much of that is true, how much is explicable, and how much is perception - cities should have higher infrastructure maintenance costs, because they have higher usage, but they also have higher corruption levels, because they have more money to misappropriate, and this leads to the assumption that every expenditure is corrupt.

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On to Biden since 1973

Kurt from CMH's picture

All hail our great leader Vlad Putin!

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For at least another hundred years we must pretend to ourselves and to everyone that fair is foul and foul is fair; for foul is useful and fair is not. Avarice and usury and precaution must be our gods for a little longer still.
John Maynard Keynes, 1930

dervish's picture

My thoughts exactly!

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

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@dervish Thanks, dervish!

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Sandino's picture

And the NSA would have that evidence if it existed.
Scott Ritter's careful reading of the document shows that all the links to Russia that they have are purely speculative, and ultimately based on the unverified claims of the discredited DNC vendor Crowdstrike. While the MSM is screaming that this is further proof of their pet Russia propaganda piece, it is actually the exact opposite. The NSA has no evidence, just hearsay claims of a biased DNC contractor which had to retract a similar claim about Russian hacking Ukraine artillery systems which was based on the same type of forensic 'evidence'. The fact that the NSA has no evidence shows not only that the leak didn't come from Russian hackers, but actually that it wasn't done with external access, but was actually an insider releasing internal documents. This is, of course, what WikiLeaks and others have maintained all along.
If the DNC realized that their documents had been stolen, it would be in their interest to claim (or hire a contractor to investigate a 'hack' and claim) that they had been hacked. Moreover, claiming they were hacked by Russians not only plays into Hillary's Cold-Warrior policy stance, and makes Trump look like a commie-lover, it also lets them smear anyone who publishes the documents or even discusses them as russky dupes or agents. This not only distracts from the discussion of content, but also scares off journalists and pundits in the MSM. Any discussion of the contents of the leaks was quickly turned into a discussion of evil foreign forces working to harm the annointed one. A very positive spin, all things considered.

Bottom line, I believe there was no hack of the DNC whatsoever, and the whole hack/Russians story is a campaign fabrication.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Sandino Excellent article; thanks for linking it. That guy is much more patient with the story than I am; he really takes it on its merits for a really long time before bringing down the truth hammer. In other words, he is scrupulously fair. And he concludes that there is no evidence whatsoever that Russia or the GRU did anything, and there's only "best-guess" speculation that Cozy Bear did anything at all in 2016 to interfere with the US election.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

However, somebody on here posted a link to a Wikileak email which showed when the Russia!!! Hacked!!! claim was invented (can't recall by whom) and suggested for use by Clinton's campaign. Pretty sure that this was in one of the Podesta emails, can't recall Son of a Sailor's proper name, though, that being the person posting the link, as far as I recall. (Damn ongoing chemical exposures here, from renovations, still messing me up something awful, too, especially as added in with an often absent mind, lol...)

I had all this noted in my drafts, but that appears to be one of the many pages disappearing from there; has probably absconded to Hawaii with whatever remained of my memory. (Unless I missed it, after spending too much time going through a bunch in that time period making no mention of this anywhere, including in the heading.)

But other people must have seen that comment, to the effect of knowing exactly when that 'Russian hack' claim was created, although I can't recall even what thread it was in; presumably something Russia BS claims-related, or possibly Seth Rich.

There are seemingly endless strong indications about this Russia nonsense being a falsehood, just as there are very strong indications every step of the way about the email leaks being leaks by insiders. And if there was any actual proof for a Russian hack, we'd certainly have been presented with it long before this.

Frankly, the more off-the-wall the whole warmongering, blame-game mess gets, the more disgusted I get with it. And I started off just horrified.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Hardening the system would also prevent both parties from shenanigans. Where would Hillary have been without a lot of "party flipping" to keep independents from voting for her.

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@MrWebster

Lol, now they'll have Homeland Security ensuring that The Right People win, every time. With all questionable results/details Top Secret to the American public, if not for interested private parties able to sit in on meetings.

Makes me think of would-be President RMoney and his mentions of things being decided by 'talks in quiet rooms'. Ahhh, strolls down memory lane are sometimes a good idea.

The Sane Progressive is one of those who's been making essential points about this, and the links she provides at source are often important, with some examples included below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdx4xovh61s

Homeland Security Seeking Jurisdiction Over US Elections Through Critical Infrastructure Clause
Sane Progressive

Published on 29 Aug 2016

Sources and Links BELOW: Click SHOW MORE:
It was reported today that foreign entities hacked into two states election systems (Illinois/Arizona). If you read the fine print, they admit they don't know the origin or source country of the hack although they deeply insinuate it was Russia (SURPRISE)! Just as a coinky-dink - this story coincides with a campaign by Homeland Security to take jurisdiction over our election by declaring our voting system part of our critical infrastructure and put it under the umbrella of Homeland Security (the unconstitutional shadow agency developed to circumvent government oversight and
adhering to constitutional law). Debbie breaks it down:
US Seeks to Protect Voting Systems from Cyberattacks in Campaign to Hand Jurisdiction Over to Homeland Security:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/04/us/...
Lord Sithe (I mean the Department of Homeland Security) Offering to "Help' Protect Our Election Systems:
http://www.voanews.com/a/homeland-sec...
Main Story featured in the video:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/fbi-says-f...
Homeland Security Past & Present Overlords Have Meeting On DNC Hacks to Call for Homeland Security Interventions:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releas... ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrloTS3p-fY

Emergency Alert: STOP Department Homeland Security Unconstitutional Bid Over US Elections
Sane Progressive

Published on 19 Sep 2016

SOURCES AND PETITION LINK BELOW: Click SHOW MORE:
The Department of Homeland Security Je Johnson has stated the Department is considering seizing unconstitutional jurisdiction over US Elections and has recently formed a Cybersecurity Election Infrastructure working group (two of the appointees riddled with election fraud lawsuits and voter roll security data breaches)! Sign the petition at White House site and share widely. Thank you.
Petition:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/peti...
Je Johnson: We May Declare Elections Critical Infrastructure:
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvesp...
Press Release Announcing Formation of DHS Cybersecurity Election Infrastructure Working Group:
http://www.pressreleasepoint.com/nass...
Alex Padilla - California Issues:
http://www.inquisitr.com/3264149/alex...
Uncounted - Serious Problems in Democratic Primary in 2016:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5ugm...
Election Fraud Blog - California Section - Documentation of CA Issues:
https://electionfraud2016.wordpress.c...
Ray Lutz Sane Progressive Interview on California Audit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljQNj...
Brian Kemp: Lawsuits and Voter Data Breach Links:
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationn...
Illegal voter data release:
http://www.projectvote.org/press-rele...
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/state-...
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/state-...
DHS Cybersecurity Group has NO Cybersecurity Experts:
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/201...
Aspen Security Group Calls for Elections to be Treated as Critical Infrastructure:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releas...
Sane Progressive Important Companion Videos to this Alert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jttgk...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzzgQ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdx4x...
Please see Election Fraud Blog for more specific evidence on Democratic Primary 2016:
https://electionfraud2016.wordpress.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOpkN1Sa3dk

US 2016 Presidential Election Was Indeed Hacked & It Was NOT Russia Who Did It

Streamed live on 15 Jan 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN-cYCjAAXI

Bipartisan Destruction of Election System Continues; Now Removing Public Financing

Published on 8 Feb 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg58nUYZoSw

Democrats & GOP War Hawks Align in Lunatic Russia Manipulation of American People

Published on 3 Mar 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH_n6vswVJY

Part 2: Department of Homeland Security Must NOT Get Jurisdiction Over US Elections

Published on 31 Aug 2016

Now, they have it. And that 'survivable' (for themselves, they think,) nuclear War on the World is probably now running at 1 minute to midnight while they mindlessly push the second-hands forward, like the crazy-people they are.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

CB's picture

@Ellen North
for covert ties to the FSB. This could be big.

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@CB

Do you think that we can hope for a real investigation or should we more likely just expect another Kangaroo Court-type clearance sell-out via announcements of dropped investigations based on more creative law interpretation, or the like?

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0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.