Posted on 12/12/2016 5:22:57 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Five Questions About Russia's Election Hacking
As the culpability of Putin’s government becomes more clear, a host of other issues remain unresolved.
David Frum
The evidence to support the CIA’s conclusion that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump remains mostly secret. But the outline of the case is no mystery. Both Democratic and Republican Party servers were reportedly hacked by foreign agents, yet the Moscow-friendly folks at Wikileaks somehow only obtained the contents of Democratic servers.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump ran a campaign that sometimes seemed almost designed to please Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump lavishly praised Putin. He hired a campaign manager who had previously gained a fortune working for a Putin-backed strongman in Ukraine. The campaign then rewrote the Republican platform to remove pro-Ukrainian language likely to irk Putin. Trump selected as his principal foreign-policy adviser a retired general previously paid by Russia’s English-language propaganda network, RT. Trump himself publicly urged the Russians to do more hacking of his opponent’s email.
Trump endorsed Putin’s war aims in Syria. He suggested that as president he would not honor NATO commitments against Russian aggression. He departed from the consistent and emphatic policy of every president since Gerald Ford, and urged the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union. He condoned the invasion and annexation of Crimea.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
He is listed as a senior editor at The Atlantic. So this is not a freelance gig either. Why did he join this mag? After all, NRO and Weekly Standard are still around where he could usually feel quite comfortable. He could also find plenty of company in his circle of GOPe/NWO friends to bitch about Trump together.
The leaked emails exposed a culture of corruption that rose to the top ranks of the Rat/COM-Left Party.
Americans voted from coast to coast to toss the Rats out of power in the Legislature and Governors’ offices, it wasn’t just Trump who won.
FUDF
There is nothing “clear” except the Democrats want to blame external forces for their miserable policies and candidate. Suck it up Buttercup.
The old-style “GOP”e are still whining.
They realize they have sold out. Big time.
He's gone all the way over, like David Brock did back in the day.
He’s more comfortable at a China-boosting magazine.
The election question: “Why does the media claim Russia interfered with the election results their China-loving advertisers wanted?”
It’s Frum, not going to waste my time reading it.
He’s an idiot NeverTrumper
I think that is EXACTLY the problem.
Why so many in the GOP lost their way.
Big, big problem that.
Does Hallmark make “thank you” or other appreciation cards in Russian?
Okay, we can’t “kill the liberals, like Frum.” We can’t eat them. Both acts are illegal. So, then…what to do about their constant, raging, brutal violence and threats?
How do we counter the vicious, never-ending Fake News attacks of their world-wide propaganda machine?”
We laugh at them.
Ridicule them.
Mock them.
Challenge them, call them liars, call them names of shame and blame.
But don’t—EVER—for one thin moment or instance, EVER believe them.
Take them seriously, as you would any lethal threat. Yes.
But laugh in their faces. And ignore them thereafter—ANYthing they say, print, or screen. Minimize and kick to the curb, their feverish, panicky lies, their perverted Fake News, and their false, self-destructive, phony world of an ash-filled, burning Nemesis.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3503885/posts
Here's the problem: The Republicans weren't hacked. Whole case falls apart right there.
Really? When did that happen? You are no better than a prostitute Frum . . . pushing a false narrative
How about this scenario?
Hillary was doing some very dirty dealings with nefarious people and businesses, making lots of undeclared income and not being to secretive about it as she had been cutting Obama and others in the government in on the money making. Very soon the people who protected her won’t be able to do so and she is vulnerable. I am sure she let all know that she won’t be going down alone.
This Russian hack story has been manufactured to give leverage to the guilty ones as they plea to be unmolested when Trump enters the office. “Hey, we will drop this nasty hacking business if you don’t come after us when you are in office.” It is weak but all they have. Might work...
#NeverTrumpers are as deranged as the Left.
So... now I just gotta ask
WTH is going on that we don’t know about that this false flag BS is trying to steer us away from?
Someone should ask Frum what David Brock’s penis tastes like.
Posted on FACEBOOK:
1. There is actually no new information leading the CIA to its conclusion. The New York Times reports: “The C.I.A.’s conclusion does not appear to be the product of specific new intelligence obtained since the election, several American officials, including some who had read the agency’s briefing, said on Sunday. Rather, it was an analysis of what many believe is overwhelming circumstantial evidence — evidence that others feel does not support firm judgments — that the Russians put a thumb on the scale for Mr. Trump, and got their desired outcome.” In other words, someone only decided after Trump won that the accusation was worth making.
2. The “evidence” that the CIA has gathered is inconclusive. The FBI also disagrees with some of the CIA’s conclusions about Russia’s motives. “While lawmakers were seemingly united on the need to present a strong bipartisan response, the FBI and CIA gave lawmakers differing accounts on Russia’s motives, according to The Post,” The Hill reported on Sunday.
3. The CIA is not making public claims that Russia hacked the election. Several CIA veterans, in fact, have urged caution about the leaked reports. As Newsweek reports: “‘I am not saying that I don’t think Russia did this,’ Nada Bakos, a top former CIA counterterrorism officer tells Newsweek, in a typical comment. ‘My main concern is that we will rush to judgment. The analysis needs to be cohesive and done the right way.’” Thus far there is not even a clear idea what the CIA’s conclusions are.
4. Despite left-wing “fake news,” there is no evidence Russian hackers actually distorted the voting process. The most that the CIA is alleging is that the Russians may have helped hack of the Democratic National Committee emails, as well as (possibly) the emails of Hillary Clinton campaign chaiman John Podesta. There is zero evidence Russian hackers messed with voting. Ironically, Green Party candidate Jill Stein’s recount has eliminated any doubt about the integrity of the results.
5. The Obama administration has a history of manipulating intelligence for political gain. The most under-reported scandal of Obama’s presidency was the CENTCOM scandal, in which it emerged that “senior U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) leaders manipulated intelligence assessments in 2014 and 2015 to make it appear that President Barack Obama is winning the war against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL).” There is even more reason to doubt the truth of a selective leak about the election.
6. Julian Assange and Wikileaks have vigorously denied that the Russians were involved in Wikileaks’ disclosures. Of the Democratic National Committee emails, Assange said: “That is the circumstantial evidence that some Russian, or someone who wanted to make them look like a Russian, was involved, with these other media organisations. That is not the case for the material that we released.” Assange made similar denials about the Podesta email leaks later in the election.
7. The fact that the Russians might constantly be trying to hack U.S. systems, and might even specifically have targeted the election, does not prove that they succeeded. Nor does it prove that they tipped the election to Trump even if they had some effect. As pollster Frank Luntz tweeted: “Did Russia also hack Hillary’s campaign calendar and delete all her stops in rural Wisconsin, Penn., and Michigan?” Hillary Clinton lost the election for reasons entirely of her own making.
8. Foreign interference in elections is nothing new — and the Obama administration is a prime culprit. In 2015, the Obama administration made a strenuous and not-terribly-well-hidden effort to swing the Israeli elections toward the opposition and away from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The State Department gave $300,000 to a “pro-peace” Israeli group, which then paid political activists whose goal was to unseat Netanyahu. In 1984, the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) actually asked for Soviet help. Russian efforts to intervene would be bad, but not unique, either for Russia or for the U.S.
9. What would the consequences of allowing undue Russian influence in our elections be, exactly? Would we yield primacy in Eastern Europe to Vladimir Putin? Would we give up our plans for missile defense? Would we make deep unilateral cuts in our nuclear arsenal in exchange for flimsy concessions ? Would we tolerate a Russian land invasion of a friendly, pro-Western country? Would we cede the Middle East to Russian hegemony? Because Hillary Clinton and Obama already did that.
10. Occam’s razor: the simplest explanation for the “Russian hacking” story is that it is “fake news” that suits the left-wing media. It is not unknown for Russia to use false propaganda to affect public opinion in foreign countries. Nor is it unknown for the U.S. media to use bias, “fake news,” and outright lies to shift public opinion in this country. The current focus on Russian “hacking,” based on no new evidence and — again — zero evidence of tampering with the voting process.
Didn’t someone once say that if you repeat a big lie often enough the public will eventually start to believe it?
I’ve been following some of Frump’s tweets lately, for amusement. He is utterly deranged with his Trump hatred. He has become a total “useful idiot” for the left.
Fe Fi Fo Frum...
I smell the blood of a dickhead.
(poetic license)
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