Free Republic

....Not one US senator asked former FBI Director James Comey to account for the sinister fact that the source of the explosive determination that “Russia hacked the DNC” computer system is a DNC contractor, not the FBI. Not one US Senator asked why Comey’s FBI deferred to DW-Schultz’s DNC when the DNC refused to permit FBI forensics specialists to examine the DNC computer system; or why the FBI was never able to examine Podesta’s devices. Not one member of the Senate Intelligence Committe inquired as to why the DNC servers have not,[ ] ever been re-examined by the FBI; or...

<p>President Obama admitted Sunday he “underestimated” the hacking threat to the United States — although he defended his policy toward Russia and how he dealt with Vladimir Putin.</p> <p>“I don’t think I underestimated him, but I think that I underestimated the degree to which, in this new information age, it is possible for misinformation, for cyber hacking and so forth, to have an impact on our open societies, our open systems, to insinuate themselves into our democratic practices in ways that I think are accelerating,” Obama told ABC’s “This Week.”</p>

Here’s the real problem with the joint intelligence report on alleged Russian hacking: without the classified details, we ordinary citizens are supposed to take the breathless allegations, presented as “high confidence” intelligence judgments, on faith. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and CIA Director John Brennan are crossing their fingers and saying, “Trust us.” Since both are political appointees – Brennan in particular came directly out of the Obama White House, where he is believed to have orchestrated secret arms smuggling through Libya to Syrian rebels that led directly to the Benghazi disaster – excuse me if I remain skeptical....

It's magic! No one noticed the hand not moving, The Deception... The Diversion...The Distraction... or the Depredation The Democrats have not been this decimated since 1928. They’ve become hysterical, unhinged, wholly ineffective as a political party, repudiated, recalled, replaced, and marginalized by a nation they had not served. Their media, their propaganda arm, has been discredited. Into this vacuum the Hacking Narratives arrived to explain away the disaster that was the Obama Presidency; to salve the wounds and medicate the collective self-inflicted anxiety experienced by the once-great party’s supporters.

Assuming that the story was true — that Russian hackers had gained access to a Vermont utility’s software — members of the mainstream media piped its echoes across the Internet:ABC News: Russian Hacking Malware Found on Vermont Utility Computer International Business Times: Vermont Electric Grid Targeted by Russian Hackers Chicago Tribune: Russian hack of Vermont utility shows risk to power grid Each of these stories is now between one and two days old, with no follow-up once the Washington Post edited its original article:An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that Russian hackers had penetrated the U.S. electric grid. Authorities...

full title.....Exclusive: Suspected Russian hack of DNC widens — includes personal email of staffer researching ManafortJust weeks after she started preparing opposition research files on Donald Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort last spring, Democratic National Committee consultant Alexandra Chalupa got an alarming message when she logged into her personal Yahoo email account. “Important action required,” read a pop-up box from a Yahoo security team that is informally known as “the Paranoids.” “We strongly suspect that your account has been the target of state-sponsored actors.” Chalupa — who had been drafting memos and writing emails about Manafort’s connection to pro-Russian political...