h/t Instapundit
Reports Friday that U.S. intelligence agencies believe Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential campaign to tilt the election in favor of Donald Trump have sown precisely the kind of confusion that American adversaries must have hoped for with their actions. In an effort to reach some sort of clarity, let's break the matter down into two separate questions--Was it Russia that hacked the Democratic National Committee's servers? Did the culprits hack the servers in order to secure a Trump victory? IMO, what smartest Americans don't understand - or are not willing to believe - is that post-Soviet Russians have much better understanding of Hillary & her supporters than Americans themselves. Russians understand that these people are Khmer Rouge with nukes.
#1
Under the fold, they also hack the RNC only to find boring management and business exchanges. That it was so boring it has sparked so little interest. The dog that didn't bark.
MOSCOW (AP) -- As the Soviet Union was breaking up 25 years ago, Mikhail Gorbachev expected the United States and its Western allies to provide vital aid. The former Soviet president thinks their failure to offer significant help wasted a chance to build a safer world and resulted from short-sighted gloating at a Cold War rival's demise.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, the 85-year-old Gorbachev voiced hope that Russia and the United States would do better and ease current tensions during Donald Trump's presidency.
"The relations between us are so important and concern everyone else, so we must take the interests of others into account," said the leader credited with helping to end the Cold War.
Gorbachev said he had expected Hillary Clinton to win the U.S. presidential race and was surprised by Trump's victory. He declined to offer an assessment of Trump, saying it remains to be seen what policies the new U.S. administration will pursue.
"He has little political experience, but, maybe, it's good," he said.
[Bloomberg] The two top Republicans in Congress offered strong support for the intelligence community Monday, in sharp contrast to President-elect Donald Trump’s attack on the CIA after reports the agency found that the Russian government tried to help him win the presidency.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he had the "highest confidence" in the intelligence agencies, while House Speaker Paul Ryan praised them for "working diligently" to take on cyber threats from foreign governments. But both leaders also warned against using the issue for partisan gain or casting doubt on the outcome of the election.
McConnell singled out the Central Intelligence Agency for praise and said the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services panels will investigate findings by intelligence agencies that Russia hacked into e-mails and computers used in the presidential campaign.
"Any foreign breach of our cybersecurity measures is disturbing and I strongly condemn any such efforts," McConnell told reporters. He added later, "The Russians are not our friends."
#2
Confirming that mistrust of that report is well placed
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
12/13/2016 9:44 Comments ||
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#3
If their work is so solid, release it for public review. They want to overturn the election -- and risk a civil war -- so that's the least they should do.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
12/13/2016 9:59 Comments ||
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#4
This is about keeping certain manila envelopes in locked drawers. Nothing more.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/13/2016 10:46 Comments ||
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#5
This election is not Puton's fault, it is Bush's fault!
[PJ] The degree to which the Democrats have changed their tune on Vladimir Putin almost on a proverbial dime is either black comic or nauseating or both, depending on how you want to look at it. Whatever it is, it is a extremely obvious example of how party politics is conducted in our era (possibly always).
If your side does it, it's diplomatic genius bound to yield peace in our time. If the other side does the exact same thing, it's a horrendous mistake bordering on treason likely to cause a national calamity, if not global Armageddon.
If there were any decent, even semi-even-handed political science departments left in our country (okay, maybe there are one or two), what we might call the Democrats' "Great Putin Flip Flop" would be a textbook case for classroom discussion.
Let's start at the beginning, March 2009, but a few weeks after the first inauguration of Barack Obama, when a smiling Hillary Clinton presented Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov the red "reset" button, signaling the arrival of a supposed era of peace between the two countries. The new administration was greeted with hosannas for their great symbolism from their loyal claque at the New York Times, Washington Post, NBC, et al., who were oblivious, needless to say, that the word "peregruzka" printed in Cyrillic on the button, thought to mean "reset" in Russian by the linguistic geniuses in our State Department, was actually the word for "overload."
No wonder Lavrov has such a quizzical look on his face in the all the photos. (Imagine what the reaction of the press would have been had Trump's putative secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, done something similar. Media lynch mob?) Much more important, however, was the extreme ignorance of the Russian character, from the Czars through Lenin and Stalin and on into the present, evinced by such a naive, almost childish, "reset." Throughout the East, of which Russia has always been a signal part despite intermittent yearnings for the West, a powerful leader has always been the center of national and tribal life. Silly, symbolic gestures like "reset" buttons are seen as weakness, not compromises or attempts at global comity. They are something to exploit.
Do I believe Trump actually was the Russians' preference? That would be mighty optimistic on their part. How could they do better than Obama, considering the last eight years? And why not just as well elect a weakened Hillary?
My guess is, if (big if) they were the instigators of the hacking of the embarrassingly cyber-incompetent DNC, they were equal-opportunity hackers, anxious to create confusion and finger-pointing, rather than specific results that would be hard to control. This would be consistent with Russian/Soviet behavior over generations.
#4
If the Democrats were too stupid to secure their email server they have no business anywhere near the reins of power in this country.
Of course the Russians hacked that server. Anybody who has done the least bit of work having to do with cyber security knows the Russians are extremely active hackers. They always have been. But there are measures that can be taken to make a server secure from such attacks. For the DNC not to take such measure is an indication of gross negligence and incompetence. They are not the kind of people you want running the country.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/13/2016 11:13 Comments ||
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#5
For the DNC not to take such measure is an indication of gross negligence and incompetence.
Especially given the excellent relations they've with IT barons.
The gurgle bunch? Suckerpurge? They are ad sellers. Not IT specialists. The IT specialists they employ are tasked to make everything easy to get at for ad selling purposes. I bet none of them personally do anything important to themselves online.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/13/2016 11:35 Comments ||
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#7
When I learned about how she sent classified mails using her own private account, ie on the clear and with her emails resting at hers and destinatary's ISP I was simply aghast: how could anyone just think in providing the nuclear codes to such frivolous, irresponsible woman? In three months they would have been in ISIS or AL Quaida's hands.
#8
A US policy determined by the highest bidder, sounds great.
Hillary would be a figurehead on a worm-eaten man-o-war. I think everyone and their Ghana hacked that server, or at least paid for a peep show.
Gonna put on my tin-foil ushanka and put this out:
Clintons to sell uranium to Iran, use Russia to launder the transaction. Russians wanting best price peek at the cards by hacking, monitoring SoS communications. Sometime after transaction is finalized, the hacks are discovered. Hillary gets pissed, vows revenge for shorting her. Russians get wind of this, begin preparation for war as election closes and Hillary is expected winner.
Just remembering the conversation between the US ambassador to Ukraine concerning the sluggish EU.
#9
*That being said, I am still in the camp that the initial releases was likely by a Sanders supporter familiar with the IT systems, on account of the timing - the DNC was in session and there was still not an official democrat delegate and it was obvious that the fix was in from the beginning.
#10
When does hillary go to prison anyways?
That investigation is not over, and since she wants to stir up sh!t, it's a great time to make sure her slimy lizard alien body does not slip through all the hooplah.
[Daily Caller] Prominent black civil rights attorneys have endorsed Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions’ appointment to become attorney general, in letters exclusively obtained by The Daily Caller.
Democrats have voiced concerns with the possibility of Sessions’ serving as attorney general. Democratic National Committee chairwoman Donna Brazile has said, "His demonstrated disdain for the rights of ordinary Americans, his history of discrimination and pattern of racist behavior make him unfit to serve as the next Attorney General."
Much of the criticism of Sessions stems from his failed 1986 confirmation to become a federal judge. At the time a former colleague of Sessions came out and claimed Sessions had made racist remarks, which the then-federal prosecutor denied. It is this failed confirmation that has led the head of the Alabama NAACP to come out against Sen. Sessions.
But Alabama native Fred Gray, who represented Rosa Parks after she was arrested for refusing to give up a Montgomery bus seat, certainly does not think Sen. Sessions is a racist. Gray sent Sen. Sessions a letter on November 22 obtained by The Daily Caller in which he praised the work the Alabama senator has done to help him.
#2
Hmmm... is it possible that some black leaders are starting to become just as sick and tired of the Democrats' absurd, knee-jerk accusations of "racism" as whites are?
One can only hope...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
12/13/2016 9:45 Comments ||
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#3
After his liberal, black law school classmate stood up to defend him in very strong terms because, as he said, he was ashamed about not having done so in the past, others felt freed to join the chorus, it appears. Good for them.
[Right Scoop] Wow. Peters is even suggesting that Tillerson got ’dirty’ in his dealings with Putin!
I love how Peters says he’s not a conspiracy theorist, but even he is wondering why Trump will never criticize anything Putin does and why he constantly surrounds himself with people who are pro-Russia.
I do wonder if Tillerson’s name was floated out there this weekend so Trump could get a feel for just how difficult this nomination would be, knowing that since it isn’t official yet he can still nominate someone else. And from all the media reports, it looks like this is the one that would get the most scrutiny from the Senate.
#1
I believe Peter's is an RU linguist and regional expert whose last active duty assignment was with the POW/MIA commission. I suspect at least some of his contempt toward Russia stems from that assignment. I have an abiding respect for the man.
#4
I'm not adverse to Mr. Tillerson for Secretary of State. He has many years of international and domestic negotiating experience plus, already having made his money, won't turn the State Department into a storefront for money laundering.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/13/2016 8:34 Comments ||
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#5
What's the flip side of getting along with the Russians? He appears to have survived his long-standing relationship with them. Perhaps Tillerson's expertise can be leveraged.
Ralph Peter's views aside, I suspect a great deal of the anxiety with Trump's appointments can be attributed to class envy.
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[Bloomberg] The two top Republicans in Congress offered strong support for the intelligence community Monday, in sharp contrast to President-elect Donald Trump’s attack on the CIA after reports the agency found that the Russian government tried to help him win the presidency.
Ref #1. I will also go with 'confusion and finger pointing.' 
