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US Investigating Potential Covert Russian Plan To Disrupt November Elections (washingtonpost.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Washington Post: U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies are probing what they see as a broad covert Russian operation in the United States to sow public distrust in the upcoming presidential election and in U.S. political institutions, intelligence and congressional officials said. The aim is to understand the scope and intent of the Russian campaign, which incorporates cyber-tools to hack systems used in the political process, enhancing Russia's ability to spread disinformation. The effort to better understand Russia's covert influence operations is being coordinated by James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence. The Kremlin's intent may not be to sway the election in one direction or another, officials said, but to cause chaos and provide propaganda fodder to attack U.S. democracy-building policies around the world, particularly in the countries of the former Soviet Union. U.S. intelligence officials described the covert influence campaign here as "ambitious" and said it is also designed to counter U.S. leadership and influence in international affairs. One congressional official, who has been briefed recently on the matter, said "Russian 'active measures' or covert influence or manipulation efforts, whether it's in Eastern Europe or in the United States" are worrisome. It "seems to be a global campaign," the aide said. As a result, the issue has "moved up as a priority" for the intelligence agencies, which include the FBI and Department of Homeland Security as well as the CIA and the National Security Agency. Their comments came just before President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin talked privately about cyberspying and other matters on the sidelines of the Group of 20 talks in China.
Anyone with half a brain knows HRC is corrupt as fuck, and Trump is 100% unsuited for the office. FFS, the mainstream media has done a fine job of showing 2/3 of the electorate is aware of this is a fact, they're voting against someone instead of for someone.. Most of us don't think either one should be top dawg.
Mainstream media needs to start focusing on the alternatives, like Johnston and Stein, and quit telling us we're stuck with the two fuckwits we see on 99% of the news coverage.
Even though this election may be self-inflicted, Putin can take credit regardless, and use that to threaten other nations.
"If you don't do things our way, you'll end up with bozos in your election also."
That may be a more effective threat than nukes.
Table-ized A.I.
It's in the US national spirit to distrust authority
You might be able to say that about the framers of the Constitution fleeing from British rule. However, the Silent Generation and the Baby Boomers sure don't see it that way. Have you had a Baby Boomer manager? The rhetoric is "trust me, do exactly what I say and I'll reward you appropriately." There is no better way to become the adversary of a baby boomer than expressing skepticism of their authority.
You're probably Generation X or younger. Generation X broke the trend of blind obedience and trust in government and social institutions. We had a lot of motivation like McCarthyism, Vietnam, etc. We looked at the horrors of the blind obedience to the Third Reich. In recent times, we've watched the US Chamber of Commerce buy our politicians to write pro Laissez Faire policies that benefit them without considering the (sometimes devastating) side effects of those policies. The Millenials have continued that trend. I understand your perspective and agree but regardless we need to acknowledge that we have quite a fragmented culture with wildly varying belief systems and this propaganda would be useful against certain segments depending on the agenda.
We'll make great pets