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President Obama Threatens Retaliatory Actions Against Russia Over Hacks (nytimes.com)

An anonymous reader quotes the New York Times: [President Obama] said he was weighing a mix of public and covert actions against the Russians in his last 34 days in office, actions that would increase "the costs for them." Mr. Obama said he was committed to sending the Kremlin a message that "we can do stuff to you," but without setting off an escalating cyberconflict... "Some of it we will do in a way that they will know, but not everybody will," he said...

[T]he president was clearly wrestling with what he said the hacking affair and the reaction to it revealed about the state of American politics. Citing a recent poll that showed more than a third of Trump voters saying they approved of Mr. Putin...the president appealed to Americans not to allow partisan hatred and feuds to blind them to manipulation by foreign powers. "Unless that changes," Mr. Obama said, "we're going to continue to be vulnerable to foreign influence because we've lost track of what it is that we're about and what we stand for."

President Obama pulled Putin aside at a September meeting of the G20 to discuss Russian hacking, according to the article, telling Putin "to cut it out, there were going to be serious consequences if he did not."

6 of 531 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Evidence, please. by MBGMorden · · Score: 4, Informative

    Every indication from the articles are that they're talking about the hacking of the DNC and Hillary's emails.

    There's not indication that they hacked the actual results (the electronic voting machines aren't even net-connected), but merely that by releasing the DNC's emails that they hacked they swayed public opinion.

    --
    "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
  2. Pot calling the kettle black by klingens · · Score: 5, Informative

    There are not even the barest shreds of any proofs about russian influence or wrongdoing. However the allegations all come from proven professional liars and torturers who then steal and kill to hide their wrongdoings. All of the infamous 17 agencies lie pretty much everytime they go public with anything political.
    How many russian speakers work at the CIA who can write russian comments? "Rasputin" is now considererd a proof? How many attack servers of the NSA and CIA are located in former soviet republics? Weren't stuxnet servers there too? The CIA/NSA has a lot more reason to do some hacking their own election than Russia: there simply is no reason for Russia to hack cause the conflicts they are in, they are actually winning, unlike the US no matter who wins the election. Also no mather who wins it, the war in the middle east will go on, maybe a little less bloody since the US won't send weapons to Al-Qaeda aka al-Nusra via Saudi Arabia. Russia has realistic goals, and goes rationally to achieve them. The US does not but finances and supports with weapons instead the people they are claiming to fight for the last 15 years.

    So if any country wishes to meddle in any election by telling the truth about any sides corruption, I say: more power to them. Even if it is some CIA guy who publicized the campaign emails. I'd be happy if they did the same for the republicans and their campaings, but I guess that hacker there already did a lot for the american public so we can't demand more from him.

    The US has meddled in other countries' elections especially their allies, since at least WW2 (Greece, Italy for example), toppled by now probably dozens of governments in clandestine operations and in bloody coups on in middle and southern america alone. So how are they to accuse anyone of doing it? And doing it with the truth instead of bullets like the US customarily does?

  3. Re:Way to waste every modicum of self-respect Obam by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Informative

    And how would that have been done, seeing as the presidential election is effectively 50 separate elections, with different voting technologies? As to Democrat email leaks, it is unclear to me that the Executive branch has ever had an overt role in securing political parties' data.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  4. Re:Good luck by mjm1231 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Were you alive, then? Because it was a 14-month march to war.

    Wow are you confused. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. The Taliban in Afghanistan admitted to hosting and supporting Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, who were responsible for the 9/11 attacks.

    I know we're living in a post factual world where empirical truth doesn't exist. But the fact is that the U.S. led a coaliton of forces against the Taliban in Afghanistan beginning on October 7, 2001. Less than one month after the September 11 attacks.

    --
    Ideology: A tool used primarily to avoid the bother of thinking.
  5. Re:Good luck by mjm1231 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Besides, Putin is more photogenic than Hillary.

    Don't assume that everyones taste in porn is the same as yours.

    --
    Ideology: A tool used primarily to avoid the bother of thinking.
  6. Re:Evidence, please. by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is just a way to declare Trump's win illegitimate.

    Here are some other ways:

    http://www.rollingstone.com/po...

    http://patch.com/michigan/detr...

    If you would like more ways Trump's win can be declared illegitimate, I'm here to serve.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.