Russia hacked our election. Now what?

It's treason charges for Stone and Manafort, and anybody who knew what they were doing and failed to say something.

 

We are led to believe that Flynn talked to Russian officials about the sanctions and lifting of them on his own.

Unless you have a conversation, this will be dragged out for eternity.

 

Some humor [emoji23][emoji23]

 

It's like the "Michelle Obama is so fat" "jokes" c. 2009-2013. The idea isn't to make a witty comment that has some basis in reality. The idea is to say something insulting and derogatory and then to laugh at the person being insulted. It's how "conservative" "humor" works. cf Rush Limbaugh, et al.

 

The question @Boandlkramer has to answer, the question he cannot answer, but the question he MUST answer one day, is why the Clinton campaign did not do a better job rigging the primary election. He claims that the Clinton campaign rigged the primaries. But why rig them in such a way that alienates so many voters? Why not concoct some scandal with Bernie and a mistress early on? Why not bar him from the ballot in Iowa?

The truth is that Boand will never understand why he cannot answer this question. He is too blinded by his warped view of reality.

 

The thing about a small segment of Berniebros is that they still think that this Russia story is about the DNC and Podesta. They're focused on on winning that small moral victory, while the real battle for our national security is flying completely over their heads.

Whatever corruption there existed in the Democratic Party, real or perceived, is completely besides the point. And at this point, totally irrelevant to the immediate problems that Trump is creating.

Trump is fundamentally changing the political culture of the country. He's habituating us to a Russian style kleptocracy and thugocracy. This Russian agenda that's unfolding in Washington isn't worried about Podesta anymore. That was just the tool they needed at the time. Now they've moved on to using Trump to dismantle the Paris climate accords and other international agreements that Russia is opposed to. If they get away with this, they will increasingly focus on dismantling our country's institutions ... like Congress and the various departments to make us unable to function. Is it really worth it for these Bernie radicals to destroy the country just in order to prove that Podesta and Brazile were assholes? Everyone already knows. Some of us are trying to move on and focus on the problems of tomorrow, not shit that already happened.

The fact that a segment of Berniebros seem to be on Russia's side in this endeavor is disappointing. This whole campaign is obviously being supported by Russian internet trolls who are festering inside the Jill Stein wing of American politics. It's such a simple formula. Take a totally legitimate issue like liberals being angry at the Democratic establishment, sprinkle a heavy dose of fake news and disinformation on that legitimate issue, and allow it to morph into a phenomenon that splinters any potential opposition to Donald Trump.

 

I have no problem with that. But the proper response should be : "let's expand our appeal and our coalition so we can have more control at the DNC and other institutions". Instead some people are only capable of sabotaging. Destroying is a lot easier than building. Getting into bed with Russia is a new low for how much they're willing to compromise to hurt these institutions.

That is simply the Western far leftist's privilege. They should be sent to Novosibirsk for one year to see what it's really like to live in that Russian utopia. Gays and blacks beat up on a daily basis. Air and water covered in industrial soot. Half the men are strung out on meth and the other half strung out on steroids. Half the women bruised up from domestic violence and the other half tricked out into sex trafficking. Single party rule and all the news is state propaganda. And any day they could invade a new country and enlist you in the army.

Some people would rather enable our president aligning us with that culture just so they can score some points on Donna Brazile.

 

That's kind of where I'm coming from too. I was born behind the iron curtain and witnessed the fall of communism in '89-90. And unfortunately in recent years my country has began to flirt with a different sort of authoritarianism ... this time of the right wing variety. It's a slow creep and it's a lot more limited this time. Now it seems the authoritarianism is focused only on politics and news media, leaving the economy, culture, internet access and movement of people relatively free.

Either way, as imperfect and slightly corrupt American style democracy is, it's infinitely better than any kind of authoritarianism. And call me crazy, but this is a much bigger issue than whatever emails Donna Brazile sent about Flint.

 

The BBC reports that the FBI has verified another part of the Steele Dossier.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39435786

At some point, the FBI will have enough hard evidence to push for a conviction of Flynn, Manafort, or Kushner.

 

This needs to happen. However I hope it doesn't end there....pound of flesh and all

 

His extended family is quite large, based on the size of the box he gets at Cards and Bats games.

 

This is exactly how it works. Meanwhile Fox has stories about same. And there are ads, think pieces, and links targeted at people based on their browsing history. Always remember that repetition makes anything true. So as plain untruths get spread around by multiple sources simultaneously, what do you expect to happen?

 

I was reading about the Russian Think Thank that devised the hacking of the US election and somehow my mind connected it with the infamous Estudiantes from the 1960s and 1970s that became the epitome of cheating and foul play. They would foul, pinch, taunt with the cheapest of them, but they would also come with more "creative" ways to hurt their opposition. One of the most elaborated pranks/cheats was for the staff to put a laxative or a sedative in a color-coded water bottle and leave it on the field for their rivals to drink from it.

I recall discussing it with my brother and he pointed out that they must have had "a lot of fun" coming out with such plans and how difficult would it be to keep a straight face while giving a bottle of laxatives to your rival.

Here is Vlady, tossing with the US, while giving us the [figurative] water with laxatives:

 

I wonder why the files were released so shortly before the election.

 

This should settle skepticism about US election hacks. Look at the timing, going into the election weekend, the affected candidate was polling 25 points above his opponent. There is an overt effort to influence western nations' elections.

However this doesn't excuse the authors of any embarrassing content. They claim that false emails were inserted with legitimate ones.

The US wasn't isolated. The west needs to come up with a way to counter this

 

What are in the Macron emails with which you have problems?