Director of National Intelligence James Clapper Jr. takes his seat to testify before a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on "Foreign Cyber Threats to the United States" on Capitol Hill, Jan. 5, 2017. Credit: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
WNU Editor: Is Russia pursuing cyber intelligence operations against the U.S. (and other countries) .... of course they are. So are the Americans, Chinese, the Israelis, and probably everyone else. Did the Kremlin favour Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton .... this blog gave many examples where Russian officials gave their opinions on who they preferred (they preferred Donald Trump) .... and why they feared Hillary Clinton (a start of a Second Cold War). There is also the personal animosity that Putin has for Hillary Clinton .... Hillary Clinton Compares Russian President Putin And Russia To Hitler And The Nazis (March 5, 2014). More here .... Are The DNC Email Leaks Russian President Putin's Revenge Against Hillary Clinton For Comparing Him To Hitler 2 Years Ago? (July 26, 2016).
Did the Kremlin order a concerted media and disinformation campaign to undermine Hillary Clinton in the U.S. election campaign .... I do not know .... but according to U.S. intelligence they did. So if true .... what was accomplished? What we do know is that because of poor server security .... DNC servers were compromised, and John Podesta's email archive was copied. Someone gave this info to Wikileaks .... and they started to leak it .... bit by bit. And yes .... for political junkies like me what they leaked was incredibly damaging. Case in point. Media personalities and journalists working with the Hillary Clinton camp to undermine Bernie Sanders .... from debate questions being fed to Hillary Clinton prior to her debates to how the media choose to cover her in general .... Leaked DNC Emails Reveal Extensive Media Collusion (July 23, 2016). The DNC leadership .... instead of being neutral .... were also exposed in being actively involved in undermining the Bernie Sanders campaign .... that resulted in the resignation of DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz a day before the convention was to start and thereby hijacking the first two days of an important convention
In the end .... even though the main stream media choose to ignore this story at the beginning .... everyone got to now what was in the emails .... nothing really good, a hell of a lot of bad, and definitely a lot that was ugly. Did it impact the election .... Donald Trump says no .... but I disagree. These revelations suppressed those who were on the fence and who were inclined to vote for Hillary Clinton .... and it certainly galvanised those who could not contemplate a Hillary Clinton Presidency. In my opinion .... the content of those emails .... coupled with the FBI investigating her .... plus running an incredibly bad campaign .... damaged Hillary Clinton among those who would have traditionally voted for the Democrats in the past ... primarily in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin where the margin of her loss was incredibly close.
For all those who were actively involved on the losing side ... including the Democrat leadership in the US Senate and Congress ....the reverberations of this loss are going to be felt for a long time. The Democrats believed this election was in the bag .... and it is easy to understand why. The Democrat party was unified, the media was on board, the money was pouring into the campaign, and their opponent .... Donald Trump .... was someone who was reviled by many within the Republican establishment, had little if any media support, was not spending money, and his message was in complete disarray (until Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway got on board in August 2016).
An excuse/explanation/rationalisation/etc. is necessary to explain this loss .... hence the Russian hacking story. So the current narrative is to focus on who they think is the messenger of these hacked emails .... and to definitely not focus on the content itself. And if all of this can be used to delegitimize the Trump Presidency .... even to a small degree .... take it as a bonus.
Should this surprise anyone .... not really. If Hillary Clinton had won the election .... this would not even be a story. And if the New York Times or the Washington Post had received the same info that Wikileaks had received but on Donald Trump or on the RNC ..... these newsrooms would be making room on their office shelf for that Pulitzer Prize that they would be sure to get. But it is Hillary Clinton who lost .... so a scapegoat is necessary .... and the Russians conveniently fit the bill right now.
As for the declassified U.S. Intelligence report on Russia's involvement in the U.S. election (report is here) .... I have read it and I am completely underwhelmed. There are no smoking guns. The report is stating that the Kremlin actively intervened in the U.S. election by using "surrogates" like Wikileaks and Russian news agencies like RT to expose damaging information on how the Democrat Party ran its Presidential campaign .... but news organisations and web sites like Wikileaks are always posting leaked information .... what is the surprise in that? Or is it because it is Wikileaks and a Russian news organisation that publishes it .... especially if it is damaging to one political party and its media surrogates .... that makes it all wrong?
The report is also stating that Russia supported Donald Trump by not exposing any damaging information on him .... even though no evidence of this being this case has been presented. But there can never be evidence of this sort ... so hence we have U.S. intelligence making a judgement call that the Russians do have damaging information on Donald Trump and/or on the RNC .... and have made the decision to not use it. Bottom line .... they are making conclusions in determining the motivations of others based on personal opinions and prejudices.
In short .... the impression that I am getting is that U.S. intelligence is very comfortable with the conclusions of this report for the simple reason that if they had wanted to influence the election of another country .... this is exactly what they would do. Quoting Buddha .... when you point a finger at someone you are actually pointing three at yourself .... and in this case .... the U.S. intelligence community, the Democrat leadership, U.S. Senators like McCain and Graham, many in the media .... they are all pointing a lot of fingers .... finger pointing that makes me wonder on how many of these individuals have been and/or are involved in operations that this report is accusing Russia of doing.
6 comments:
"The Democrat party was unified, the media was on board"
The media is always on board. It is a wing of the Democrat party
Imagine the chagrin and anger, when there was anew kid on the block, FOX News, and they were not part of the Democrat Party.
"As for the declassified U.S. Intelligence report on Russia's involvement in the U.S. election (report is here) .... I have read it and I am completely underwhelmed."
As you should be. It was not only a political hatchet job, but a rush order.
If the Russian hacking had a significant impact on the election, Hillary should have emailed it to Podesta so the Russians could hack it, and Wikileaks could leak it, and then even Briebart would have published it.
The FBI would also have had to investigate it twice.
Sorry, but there is this
1. Russians used Wiki who dumped intel on Podesta etc
2. Comey went public for something that turned out to be nothing
3. Hillary won by 3 million votes despite 1 and 2
nothing about Trump? Have you done a search in the Panama Papers? try it
1) Trump campaigned state to state based on the electoral college. If the rules were based on the popular vote, he would have campaigned differently and in different places.
2) If Hillary becomes the mayor of Gotham, you will see how well she governs of does not govern.
3) Trump won the popular vote.
More proof that Jay is a moron
"Trump's deportation vow spurs California farmers into action "
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