Slashdot Mirror


Special Counsel Mueller Charges 12 Russian Intelligence Officers With Hacking Democrats During 2016 Election (cnbc.com)

Special counsel Robert Mueller has obtained a new indictment charging 12 Russian intelligence officers with hacking Democrats to interfere with the 2016 presidential election, and with stealing information of about 500,000 American voters, the Justice Department announced Friday. From a report: The indictment lodged in Washington, D.C., accuses the Russian spies of hacking into the Democratic National Committee and the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, and of releasing emails obtained from that cybersnooping with a a goal of influencing the election. The accused also hacked into state boards of elections, secretaries of state, and into companies that provided software used to administer elections, according to Deputy Attorney Rod Rosenstein. Rosenstein said he briefed President Donald Trump about the case earlier in the week.

63 of 778 comments (clear)

  1. As they say in Russia by melted · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The mountain gave birth to a mouse.

    1. Re:As they say in Russia by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The mountain gave birth to a mouse.

      Perhaps they need basic biology lessons. They're sacrificing biology to teach hacking instead.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    2. Re:As they say in Russia by sjames · · Score: 2, Funny

      You consider an unfriendly power hacking our election to be somehow mouselike?

      So you won't mind if a bunch of hackers make sure Ficus wins every election for the next 10 years?

    3. Re:As they say in Russia by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Give it time, it's still early days. Watergate took 4 years, Iran Contra took over six.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    4. Re:As they say in Russia by PopeRatzo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The mountain gave birth to a mouse.

      Actually, the number of mice is now over 30, and the mountain is a long way from done. And never forget what a single mouse can do to an elephant, especially a big, wet, orange elephant with bone spurs.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    5. Re:As they say in Russia by amicusNYCL · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Very awful, and highly disliked (you might even say the second most-disliked candidate in the history of presidential polling, after Trump himself).

      But that is completely irrelevant to the question of whether or not Russians are actively trying to influence elections and subvert democratic processes in the US and Europe.

      And it's troubling that so many people in the US are trying to discredit an investigation into whether or not our democratic processes are being actively subverted.

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
    6. Re:As they say in Russia by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 2

      Have you forgotten all the ads and fake media campaigns?

      No, who could ever forget the Highly Effective fake media campaigns? Here Are 14 Russian Ads That Ran on Facebook During The 2016 Election

      --
      Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
    7. Re:As they say in Russia by fafalone · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Considering what comes out of peoples mouths when they explain why they voted for Trump or still support him, arguing that no one is stupid enough to have been influenced by something that dumb isn't very persuasive.

    8. Re:As they say in Russia by sjames · · Score: 2

      That's the ads. Seperate from (but related to) fake media campaigns.

      You'll never gain understanding if you studiously look away like a baby that doesn't want strained peas.

    9. Re:As they say in Russia by amicusNYCL · · Score: 2

      Yeah, the polls hated him more than her, but the voters hated her more than him.

      Well, the popular vote shows otherwise, but the major takeaway is that both major parties put up absolutely awful candidates and tried to convince everyone that voting for anyone else was pointless. 45% of the electorate decided to stay home because of that. The D-R system is actively damaging the US.

      As the election demonstrated, it was the will of the voters, not the will of the pollsters.

      It was the will of the electoral college, not the people who took the time to vote.

      Their estimates of who was more hated is irrelevant because we have an objective measurement of who actually was hated more.

      Right, the person with fewer votes, which also matches what the polls say. In a competition between the 2 most-hated candidates in the history of presidential polling, #1 got fewer votes than #2, which is what you would expect.

      What's troubling is that even though no actual evidence has come to light in the 18 months since the allegations were made the conspiracy theories still abound.

      I know exactly what you mean. We have a special investigator who is able to control his people and not leak information, and he has a ton of evidence that he is still collecting and occasionally issuing indictments around, but people want to claim that since he's not releasing all of his evidence, which would destroy his investigation if he hasn't completed it yet, that this means that there is in fact no evidence of the thing he's actively investigating. It's troubling, I agree. He's obviously working with the best interests of the country in mind, and it's troubling that so many people have these conspiracy theories around him and want to politicize his work.

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
    10. Re:As they say in Russia by Uberbah · · Score: 2

      Well, the popular vote shows otherwise

      No such thing as popular vote in the United States. Trump didn't bother to campaign in New York and California - where Hillary's margin of "victory" comes from - because he knew he wouldn't win either state. Instead, he went to the Rust Belt - where Hillary didn't bother to campaign - to ask people for their vote. If presidential elections were decided by a popular vote (and they should be) it would have been a completely different race, with completely different results. Millions of Republicans stayed home in California and New York, or voted Libertarian. Same for Democrats in states like Texas and the Green Party.

      So, talking about the popular vote is not just pointless, it's outright misleading.

  2. This has 0 to do with the election by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    And by "hacking" we mean - sent a phishing email asking to verify passwords that somebody at the DNC responded to.
    Note also the same "Russian Hackerz" tried this with the RNC too but nobody bit.

    1. Re: This has 0 to do with the election by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes, that form of hacking is still a crime, and that includes other entities such as the aforementioned state boards of elections, secretaries of state, and companies that provided software used to administer elections. A real problem.

      Unlike you know, the hysterics Republicans went into when it was the Georgia elections systems that they could find some way to blame on Obama. And they still think Obama ordered Trump to separate children from their parents.

    2. Re: This has 0 to do with the election by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Oh yeah just that he was the son of Democratic state representative Mike Kernell (a fact curiously omitted from the wikipedia page you're quoting from) at the time meant he was just a "wayward individual" and not trying to subvert an election the way those nasty foreign governments were.

    3. Re: This has 0 to do with the election by fatwilbur · · Score: 2

      What I would read into that is that the Russians were just allocating limited resources, and like everyone else, assumed Trump wasn't going to be elected. There has been data showing they turned their efforts to delegitimizing Trump's presidency after he won.

  3. And Russia Shrugs by Only+Time+Will+Tell · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm sure Russia will be falling over themselves to round these guys up and turn them over to the U.S. We can hold a trial in absentia to help make us feel better, but these individuals will never see the inside of a courtroom unless they are paying a parking fine in Mother Russia.

    1. Re:And Russia Shrugs by skids · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yeah we might as well give up and just let these guys wander around the globe and use bank accounts anywhere they please since we can't lock them up. Heck just forget the whole thing happened, I'm sure they learned their lesson.

    2. Re:And Russia Shrugs by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'm sure Russia will be falling over themselves to round these guys up and turn them over to the U.S. We can hold a trial in absentia to help make us feel better, but these individuals will never see the inside of a courtroom unless they are paying a parking fine in Mother Russia.

      The purpose of these new indictments is not to bring Russian intelligence operatives to justice. The purpose is to establish grounds for conspiracy charges against Americans. There's still a lot more to come from this investigation. Don't think for a second that this is some sort of conclusion. That mistake has been made every time new indictments are brought: "Is that all Mueller has?" is the cry from the Trump camp every time one of these new indictments is announced. You can tell from the unforced errors coming out of the Trump administration that the pressure is building.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
  4. Doomed by sycodon · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If any part of this case relies on the examination of the DNC servers by Crowdstrike then any half competent attorney could take it apart.

    1. The server will need to be provided for examination by defense experts.
    2. The chain of custody is non-existent.

    No server, no evidence. No evidence, no conviction. Even then the lack of any chain of custody calls into question the quality if any evidence found on it.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    1. Re:Doomed by E-Rock · · Score: 2

      Blockchain is the most trackable currency ever invented. No secret government anything needed.

  5. Vote count and election results not changed by schwit1 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Rosenstien added details from the podium ...

    There is no allegation in this indictment that any American citizen committed a crime.
    There is no allegation the conspiracy changed the vote count or affected any election results.

    1. Re:Vote count and election results not changed by sessamoid · · Score: 5, Informative

      Rosenstien added details from the podium ...

      There is no allegation in this indictment that any American citizen committed a crime. There is no allegation the conspiracy changed the vote count or affected any election results.

      He's already charged and obtained guilty pleas from Americans in this investigation, just not in this particular indictment.

      Determining any effect on the election was never in the purview of the Mueller investigation, just actions taken and the underlying intent. If you think a concerted misinformation campaign had no effect at all on voters, you are free to believe so. You are also free to believe and Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.

      --
      "No, no, no. Don't tug on that. You never know what it might be attached to."
    2. Re:Vote count and election results not changed by penandpaper · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If you think a concerted misinformation campaign had no effect at all on voters

      misinformation campaign as in targeting both sides with trolls and memes. Oh, and airing the dirty laundry of the DNC, the Clinton campaign, and Hillary.

      The dirty laundry wasn't misinformation. It probably persuaded some votes particularly Bernie supporters.

      How many voters do you think changed their mind because a few trolls and memes that mostly occurred after the election? Methinks you are the one inclined to believe in fairy tales.

    3. Re:Vote count and election results not changed by bobbied · · Score: 3, Insightful

      He keeps saying that... Again and Again... He said it LAST time he charged a pile of Russians.

      Honest brokers of the facts *should* include this disclaimer any time they start talking about what these charges mean. If they don't, they are ignorant of all the facts, or purposely being misleading. In the first case, they need to check their sources and use better ones. I the second case, they need to be dismissed as the partisan hacks they are.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    4. Re:Vote count and election results not changed by amicusNYCL · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Rosenstein did not claim that election results or vote counts were not affected. Let me bold the important part for you:

      There is no allegation in this indictment that any American citizen committed a crime.

      Every time Mueller puts anything in a court filing, people can't wait to jump up and conclude that this is all there is, and that this is all there ever will be. That's a bit premature. Mueller isn't finished yet.

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
  6. Cyrillic in the Guccifer 2.0 docs by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 2

    I remember downloading the Guccifer 2.0 doc cache and looking at the Office metadata (e.g., in the XML). Most of the metadata was wiped, but there were some odd Cyrillic additions and font references scattered about as if some Russian had opened the docs and copied them back.

    It would be nice to know what else was used to follow the trail here...

  7. He's got 5 convictions by rsilvergun · · Score: 4, Informative

    And counting. Seems to be going quite well to me. Let's not forget how long Watergate took, and that was just some schmucks at a hotel and not a hostile Foreign power run by ex KGB...

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:He's got 5 convictions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      "There is no such thing as a former KGB man."
      -Vladimir Putin

  8. Two movies by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I've been wondering lately whether I'm the subject of cognitive dissonance.

    If you follow Scott Adams, he talks about cognitive dissonance as two people watching the same movie and seeing different plots. When called to describe the plots, the two views are wildly different, sometimes polar opposite.

    And so for many people Trump is a racist, blowing a dog whistle that racists and liberals can hear clearly. For others, Trump is a practical leader doing what's best for the nation.

    Which is the correct view? At this point, probably no one knows - there's no unbiased source of information. Best we can do is get unbiased statistics and raw facts (such as immigration numbers, unemployment, reputable polling) and come to our own conclusions.

    Which brings me to the Mueller investigation, which I have always believed to be based on nothing. It seems perfectly obvious that the *amount* of Russian involvement in the election is well into the noise - to the tune of something like $13 million over several months, compared to $3 billion (-ish, depends on what you count) spent by Clinton and Trump.

    Am I (and half the country) dismissing something important because of cognitive dissonance?

    We might just find out.

    The Mueller indictments will be based on evidence which can be examined, and accuses specific Russians of hacking and leaking the DNC through wikileaks.

    On the other side, Julian Assange has stated several times that the leaks didn't come from Russia. Julian never identified the actual leaks, speculation has it that it was Seth Rich.

    Julian Assange is a sufficiently trustworthy source not to be dismissed out of hand, and the US justice system should allow the evidence to be combed through by the media.

    This could turn out to be a good touch-stone for validating one side of the cognitive dissonance claim.

    I look forward to the public investigations of the evidence.

    It will be good to finally see which movie we're actually watching.

    1. Re:Two movies by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Informative

      It's a bit of it date now but there's a list: https://www.nytimes.com/intera...

      Seems like a little more than failure to virtue signal. His companies discriminating against non-whites was proven in court, for example.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re:Two movies by amicusNYCL · · Score: 3, Insightful

      For others, Trump is a practical leader doing what's best for the nation.

      Those people are fooling themselves if they think Trump is doing what he does because it's best for the nation. I'm not going to comment on whether his policies are good for the US or not, but his motivation should be crystal clear to anyone who has paid attention to Donald Trump at any point over the last 30 years or so. Everything he does, every decision he makes, is based upon whether or not it is good for him personally. I don't think he cares about the country beyond the fact that he lives in it and wants it to help him through tax breaks or whatever else. Absolutely everything he does is done because he thinks it will benefit him. Even the North Korea thing - the ink isn't even dry yet and he's on TV talking about how their beaches would look great with high-end condo and apartment buildings on them. I wonder what name he imagines on those buildings.

      Like I said, I'm not commenting on whether or not his actions benefit the country, but if you think his motivation is anything other than his own personal self-interest, even if it hurts the country overall, then I think you're not paying attention.

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
    3. Re:Two movies by MobyDisk · · Score: 2

      Racism can be subtle, and not even obvious to the individual. Let me give such an example. When Trump addressed the Jewish Coalition he said:

      "I'm a negotiator like you folks, we are negotiators," Trump said, drawing laughter before pivoting to how he would renegotiate the Iran deal. "Is there anybody that doesn't renegotiate deals in this room? This room negotiates them -- perhaps more than any other room I've ever spoken in."

      Trump was playing on a Jewish stereotype, one that is often used in a derogatory way. Trump likes to present himself as a dealmaker, so maybe in context it was funny and appropriate. In isolation, we could laugh this off. But we see a lot of statements like this from Trump, and together they create the impression that his view of races and cultures is based on stereotypes and hearsay. He sounds like one of those racists who doesn't even realize they are a racist.

      We could stop there, but there are lots of clearer examples than that one. During his campaign, Trump tweeted a phony racist infographic blaming blacks for a large number of homicides. These phony facts are designed to fool people who already have racist stereotypes, and Trump fell for it. Maybe he is not a racist, and he is just dumb? Trump constantly suggested that Barack Obama was a Muslim, intending that to be deragatory. He suggested that Obama's birth certificate stated he is a "muslim" which is of course not something that would be on a birth cerfiticate... so that just feels weird, like how he sees race and religion as something immutable about a person, and something they would want to hide. There's just a lot of stuff like that he does that creates the impression of a racist. You don't have to put on a while hood and march in the streets to be a racist.

  9. Re:Comey Testimony by gtall · · Score: 4, Funny

    Damn, you caught'em. Please relay your theory to Fox News, they love that sort of thing.

  10. Re:Comey Testimony by amicusNYCL · · Score: 3, Funny

    How's the weather in St. Petersburg today? Do the people you work with still call it Leningrad?

    --
    "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
  11. Re:hmm by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Um, no. That's just a, what's that word? Oh, yeah, a LIE. In the course of "conducting espionage" against Russian intelligence operatives OPERATING IN THE US, the FBI recorded the Russians talking to Carter Page, Trump's foreign policy advisor, who they had previous evidence of collaborating with Russian Intelligence. But that's nothing to get suspicious about, right? No reason to follow up on that, right?

  12. Re:Strategically... by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Ii there's any substance to this, it's more likely that the Kremlin didn't want Hillary as president than they wanted Donald. Hillary's an aggressive war mongerer who'll try to push NATO further east, while Donald's a buffoon who's reducing the USA's diplomatic credibility in the world. Sounds like the Kremlin, if they did do this, did the rest of the world a favour.

    I'm sure you're pretty close to it. Russia saw Donald as a weak man they could easily manipulate by guiding his ego. Of all the candidates running for any party- Donald was the one most likely to destroy America's relationships with other countries and weaken America's position in the world.

    It was really a smart move by Putin. For the many bad things you can say about Putin, you can't call him stupid.

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  13. Re:Do they have H.Clintons job e-mails? by greenwow · · Score: 2

    > carry one phone.

    That's a BS excuse. Even my old second generation iPhone from 2008 supported multiple email accounts.https://politics.slashdot.org/story/18/07/13/1629245/special-counsel-mueller-charges-12-russian-intelligence-officers-with-hacking-democrats-during-2016-election.

  14. Re:32 people charged by sittingnut · · Score: 3, Informative

    32 people were charged. 12 of those were GRU (russian) agents. 3 were trump campaign personell. Article does not say who/what the others are.

    ?! wrong.
    from zerohedge with screen shot of indictment -
    "... there is no indication that any American was a knowing participant in this activity, and no indication that these efforts altered the vote count in any way."
    https://www.zerohedge.com/site...

  15. Re:32 people charged by mi · · Score: 2, Insightful

    No one indicted so far needed the Special Counsel to be indicted... None of the indictments implicate Trump in any wrong-doing either.

    That you are biased is obvious. That you are so biased, the above truths aren't clear to you, is rare...

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  16. Re:hmm by Alascom · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It is important to include all relevant facts.

    Peter Strozk, the FBI boss in the news for saying he would "stop Trump" from becoming President, was the person who paid Stefan Halper as an FBI informant and placed him inside the Trump campaign.

    Stefan Halper then used his influence inside the campaign to recommend and hire Carter Page, who is now accused of being a Russian spy.

    So the trail of facts seems to show a very very different story.

    1. FBI's boss (Peter Strozk) hires a mole
    2. FBI place mole inside Trump campaign (due to fear of russia)
    3. FBI Mole recommends and hires a Russian spy (Carter Page)
    4. FBI gets warrants to spy on campaign based on Russian spy "infiltrating" the campaign - Peter Strozk (see 1) leads the investigation
    5. Opponents claim Trump colluded with Russians and deny FBI bias.

    If Occam's razor can provide a better way to interpret these facts, please share.

  17. Re:32 people charged by Tulsa_Time · · Score: 2

    No COLLUSION By Any US Citizen

    --
    5 out of 6 people enjoy Russian Roulette & 6 out of 7 Dwarfs are not Happy
  18. Re:32 people charged by sittingnut · · Score: 2

    it is justice department press release about justice department's indictment of russian agents.

    comment i was replying to, said there were "trump campaign personell" charged. that was wrong, as i said. do you agree i am right on that?

    and justice department is specific "no indication that any American was a knowing participant in this activity,"
    and could you point to pages in indictment where it names americans knowingly "working with those that committed crimes", as you imply it does.

    you are free to speculate about future indictments with or (as in your case) without facts.
    same way, someone else may speculate, you and i, will be indicted in future as russian saboteurs of slashdot threads. lol.

  19. Re: 32 people charged by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    You mean Prigozhin's company, Concord Consulting? That's still proceeding to trial.

    This is different and involves a bunch of GRU officers.

    "Russian GRU officers hacked the website of a state election board and stole information about 500,000 voters," Rosenstein said. "They also hacked into computers of a company that supplied software used to verify voter registration information."
    The defendants worked for two units of the GRU that "engaged in active cyber operations to interfere in the 2016 presidential elections," Rosenstein said. One unit stole information using spearfishing schemes and hacked into computer networks where they "installed malicious software that allowed them to spy on users and capture keystrokes, take screenshots and exfiltrate or remove data from those computers."

  20. Re:foreigners? by Talderas · · Score: 3, Informative

    While your statement is factually correct the narrative to which the submitter is reference is the "Trump-Russia Collusion" narrative. People want it to be true to get rid of Trump. These are all publicly available in indictments.

    Papadopoulos - Perjury
    Flynn - Perjury
    Manafort & Gates - Falsified income tax filings and bank fraud.
    Pinedo - Identity Fraud
    van der Zwaan - Perjury

    Only Pinedo, has anything to do with Russian involvement and that has to do with him selling some of the fraud services to the Russians. Pinedo wasn't involved with Trump's campaign. Each of the indictments of individuals associated with the Trump campaign have nothing to do with the operations of the Trump campaign or even involve the Russians.

    --
    "Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
  21. Detecting trolls and sock puppets on Slashdot by shanen · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If I ever had a mod point to give, then I might give you one on the grounds that it's the only visible mention of "hackers" in this discussion.

    In general, I was not made happy by the lack of "funny" comments, even though it's a serious topic with little room for humor. However, it was more saddening to see the dominance of the discussion by obvious trolls and sock puppets. Does it call for a review of the ontology of lies? Or a new ontology of trolls?

    The so-called victory of #PresidentTweety was razor thin. What that actually means is that each and EVERY group that can plausibly claim to have influenced about 80,000 voters has an equally plausible claim to be the margin of Trump's residency in the "dump", as he described the White House. Actually, you could argue for 40,000 if they were voters swung away from Hillary and over to Trump.

    There are strong and credible evaluations (including some bipartisan ones) that strongly indicate that the tactics of Putin's goons influenced at least that many suckers among the millions of voters they targeted. Ergo, it's rather hard to deny that Trump owes Putin, but it's only a question of degree. My assessment is that Trump is much more beholden to Mike Pence for delivering the votes of the religious lunatics.

    Or perhaps it's more significant that the US government is almost surely more guilty of interfering in elections than the Russians? If money does translate into votes, then it would be a sure call. Do you know how much of the Marshall Plan funding was actually diverted to the CIA? And how much of that dark money was used for meddling in elections in places like Italy and Japan?

    Still, it feels worse when our own ox has been gored. It might be worse in this case only because of the old KGB kompromat on Trump that Putin inherited. (I still think the Golden Shower rumor is a clever feint created by Putin to make his puppet feel safer.)

    --
    Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
    1. Re:Detecting trolls and sock puppets on Slashdot by fat_mike · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Trump won 2600 counties to Clinton's 500. That's 84%. How is that razor thin? You can blame the Electoral College but it is there for a reason so that voters in the middle of Kansas or Montana or Nevada or Illinois have just as a loud a voice as everyone else.

    2. Re:Detecting trolls and sock puppets on Slashdot by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2

      Trump won 2600 counties to Clinton's 500. That's 84%. How is that razor thin? You can blame the Electoral College but it is there for a reason so that voters in the middle of Kansas or Montana or Nevada or Illinois have just as a loud a voice as everyone else.

      You need to up your math game. Trump won 100 percent of the votes for Trump.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  22. Re:so this... by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The two are not mutually exclusive.

    Hillary Clinton lost to an incompetent businessman who had (and has) no idea of how to be President of the United States. She's that bad.

    ...or the Russians are that good.

  23. Re:hmm by jeff4747 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If Occam's razor can provide a better way to interpret these facts, please share.

    Ok:

    FBI announces in late 2016 that they have an active investigation into the Trump campaign working with Russia to affect the election.

    That would toss the election to Clinton, since it was pretty close. And it would be really, really easy for the FBI to do if they actually were out to sabotage Trump. Just a press release, like the multiple press releases they sent out for their investigation into Clinton.

    Instead, the FBI announced the investigation into Clinton's emails, including a big announcement reviving it in October. The FBI didn't talk about the investigation into the Trump campaign, and actively turned the press away from it by claiming the investigation didn't involve the Trump campaign.

    That would be a really bad idea if they were actually out to get Trump.....but it doesn't fit the narrative so the imbalance in press releases somehow doesn't get included when you talk about including all facts.

  24. Re:32 people charged by amicusNYCL · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Are you limiting your scope to the latest indictments? Because people like Manafort and Papadopoulos have already been indicted by Mueller, and some have pled guilty. The scope of his investigation is very large. It's also not over, and he's actually able to control his people so there aren't any leaks, we have no idea what evidence he has or who his other targets are. The only information we get from Mueller is when he files things in court. So it's probably premature for anyone to conclude anything other than what his filings say. Just because there has not been a filing charging someone with collusion, for example, does not mean that there is no collusion or that he's not investigating it or that he doesn't have evidence of it. He just hasn't filed that yet, so let's hold off on making conclusions about what people definitely did or did not do until he finishes his work.

    --
    "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
  25. Re:He needed new patsys by amicusNYCL · · Score: 2

    I believe the correct spelling of your name should be Arkhangelsk. But, really, feel free to keep linking to a site actively trying to discredit an ongoing investigation into Russians trying to subvert the democratic processes of the US. Let's just act like that's not happening, because that's totally patriotic and in all of our best interests, right?

    Really, it's becoming so tiresome that so many people in the US apparently don't want to know whether and how Russia is trying to influence our country at the highest levels. These people seem to love Donald Trump more than they love the US, and it's really weird to see.

    --
    "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
  26. Re:32 people charged by multi+io · · Score: 4, Informative

    What have the FBI, the NSA, and the rest of our wonderful "intelligence" apparatus been doing, while this was going on?

    Oh, yeah, they were busy trying to sabotage Trump

    Strzok sat on evidence incriminating Trump campaign members in connection with Russian election interference -- and didn't publish it. And Comey basically threw the election to Trump by reopening the Clinton investigation in late October. That's some strange behaviour for people supposedly trying to "sabotage Trump".

  27. Re:Don't worry America! by Darinbob · · Score: 2

    That's because Trump continues to campaign. Continuing to hold political rallies even in off years is rare to see in democratic republics.

  28. Re:foreigners? by Talderas · · Score: 2

    My apologies. I erred when crafting that sentence. I made the assumption that the sentence would be interpreted in the context of the Russian collusion narrative, which is that Trump owes his Presidency to the Russians.

    Papadopolous's indictment features a number of false statements regarding attempting to reach out to Russian contacts. The indictment contains no evidence of Papadopolous's statements being much more than an indication that he attempted to arrange a meeting between Trump and the Russian government as well as obtain the alleged hacked Clinton emails. If anything, the indictment goes to prove just how little Papadopolous managed to accomplish. In the end he never got the emails and there was no meeting arranged between the Russians and Trump or his campaign.

    Flynn, which I had accidently posted Manafort's indictment also spoke with Russians. Flynn did contact with Russians but contact was also tangential to the collusion narrative. The indictments don't contain specifics but Flynn may have done no more than communicated the preferences of the Trump Presidential Transition Team to the Russians or other nations and encourage them to keep in mind the incoming administration when voting on a UN resolution. Flynn's perjury charges almost certain arose out of a desire to avoid any potential Logan Act prosecution, something that would be a very interesting case to watch come through the pipes with regard to the authority that will be assumed and has been preemptived bestowed on the President-elect via an election.

    --
    "Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
  29. Re:foreigners? by quantaman · · Score: 2

    While your statement is factually correct the narrative to which the submitter is reference is the "Trump-Russia Collusion" narrative. People want it to be true to get rid of Trump. These are all publicly available in indictments.

    Papadopoulos - Perjury

    His perjury was about a meeting on Clinton's emails that he had with a man whom he knew to be connected to the Russian government.

    Flynn - Perjury

    Perjury about his phone conversations with the Russian ambassador.

    Manafort & Gates - Falsified income tax filings and bank fraud.

    Hiding income that they got working for a Russia-backed politician in Ukraine and other Russian interests.

    Only Pinedo, has anything to do with Russian involvement and that has to do with him selling some of the fraud services to the Russians. Pinedo wasn't involved with Trump's campaign. Each of the indictments of individuals associated with the Trump campaign have nothing to do with the operations of the Trump campaign or even involve the Russians.

    It's surprising that you went to the trouble to link to the indictments that actually contradict your claims.

    I mean Papadopoulous, while on the campaign, met with a Russian connected individual to get information on emails that would damage Clinton.

    What possible definition of "with the operations of the Trump campaign or even involve the Russians" does that not satisfy?

    --
    I stole this Sig
  30. Re:No collusion... by Karmashock · · Score: 2

    if you've got evidence then why can't you go to trial?

    Because people are running their mouths and actually don't have evidence.

    I know I know... bluster and hummms and hahs... take it to court or its just hot air.

    --
    I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
  31. Don't blame the EC for failing to do its job by shanen · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I don't think these attacks on the EC are well justified because the founders were quite clear that one of the main purposes of the EC was to prevent presidents like Trump, whose only campaign tactic is to make mobs angry. The entire notion of "faithless elector" would be anathema to them, because the electors were NOT supposed to be chained to the voters. If the EC was working as intended, Trump is EXACTLY the president they wanted to prevent.

    Perhaps a secret ballot in the EC would help? I really think that a lot of the electors might have voted against Trump if they had been able to do so. Given the dislike of Hillary (regardless of whether that dislike was legitimate or ginned up), it is quite possible the EC would also have been unable to vote for her. In that case, they would have had to fall back on the other mechanisms for picking a president, and they certainly could not have found a worse president than #PresidentTweety.

    Just a footnote, but don't forget that they wanted a system that would confer strong legitimacy, something like a mandate to lead, after strongly contested elections. I rather wish that they had been able to innovate all the way to a parliamentary system instead of creating such a winner-take-all system.

    --
    Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
    1. Re:Don't blame the EC for failing to do its job by Uberbah · · Score: 2

      I don't think these attacks on the EC are well justified because the founders were quite clear that one of the main purposes of the EC was to prevent presidents like Trump

      The "Founders" created the EC for the same reason they had state governments elect Senators and only gave white male property owners the right to vote: they were elitist pricks who wanted to present the illusion of a representative democracy, while creating an oligarchy ruled by an aristocracy in all but inherited title. They were deathly afraid of "the mob" having any kind of say, otherwise known as poor and working people having input on their own governance or self-determination.

  32. Re: so this... by jwhyche · · Score: 2, Insightful

    People who live in reality don't have to rationalize anything. We just accept what is happening and truth. That truth being, Trump is doing a good job. No amount of "rationalization" by people with TDS will change that.

    Of course by living in reality if Trump stops doing a good job we will accept that too.

    As for his tweets, I don't see why anyone really pays attention to them. Well they are good at setting TDS people to frothing. When like the mythical nuclear war that didn't happen they have conquered up another boogie man when that didn't work out. They specter of a trade war. Which, to give them credit as a better chance of happening but not likely.

    See here is what really happened. Trump stated that the trade deals between friends and allies was unfair. Like his NATO comments, that also pissed everyone off, he is of course correct. Like the nuclear comments this has sent the left off in a tizzy spouting 'Trade War! Trade War!" Which like the earlier nuclear war that didn't happen, this will probably not happen ether.

    Would you like to know why? Sure you would. Because both sides, again like in the case of the nuclear war that didn't happen, know that a trade war would benefit no one. So here is what will happen. People that actually know what they are doing will get together. They will hammer out some agreements, then the politicians, like Trump will come in and take credit.

    There. Is that all clear now? Now that, that is settled lets get on with more important conversations.

    --
    I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
  33. Re:Strategically... by Dread_ed · · Score: 2

    If this is the actual case, "Russia saw Donald as a weak man they could easily manipulate by guiding his ego," (and I believe it is) then you can say many things about Democrats, but you can't call them smart, effective, or mature.

    Controlling someone who has their over-inflated ego attached to a very specific self image, and is incredibly eager to present that self image in public, is easy. You appeal to that nature, couch your desires in terms of how it will reinforce the image they want to portray. Play to their ego, mention their legacy, compliment them on possessing those positive traits, and show them how a specific course of action will prove to everyone they possess those positive traits Imply or present scenarios where inaction or action other than what you desire would be detrimental to the image they want to portray or even better, would be seen as evidence their desired image is a fraud. If you are successful, which is incredibly easy if you are mature enough to focus on results rather than your own childish impotent rage, your enemy will bend over backward and crab-walk over fire to show everyone who they are and in the process do exactly what you want.

    Democrats have really overdone the second part, impugning his character, saying he's a fraud, a racist, a sexist, a NAZI, a traitor, a heartless ignoramus, etc. They missed the whole first part though, and as such have missed every opportunity to manipulate this man into doing their bidding. They are so emotionally overwrought they have become completely ineffective at politics. It is they, not Trump, who are their own worst enemy. By definition this makes them, as a group, not as intelligent as Trump.

    It also makes Putin their political, emotional, and intellectual superior by a huge margin. No wonder they fear him so much. They are incapable of following where his mind goes, impotent to control their actions the way he does, and so helplessly addicted to outbursts of infantile outrage they can't stop, even if doing so meant they could control the White House after a lost election.

    If that's not an indictment of the negative effects of partisanship and how it destroys the minds, power, and agency of those who continue to practice it, I don't know what is.

    --
    When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
  34. Re: so this... by jwhyche · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There is what I was waiting for..

    Not only do those suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) suffer from the ability to separate fantasy from reality, it also clouds their ability to carry on a rational discussion. This should be evident. The subject was incensed by by a factual statement but was unable to refute it. The subject continued to get more agitated as more facts where placed in front of him. Facts that while true, didn't fit with the subjects world view as viewed under the effect of TDS.

    The final straw for the subject came when these facts where combined with a rational projection of what will probably happen. Unable to refute these facts and a rational projection that didn't fit with the subjects world view he was driven into a rage (frothing.) This is common result of trying to engage subjects under the effect of TDS.

    As clearly seen by the subjects last post in this thread it should be clear that the subject has lost all contact with reality where it comes to a successful Trump presidency. At this point there is nothing more to be gained by continuing to engage such subjects. Medical intervention is usually required after this point.

    Any questions?

    --
    I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
  35. Re: so this... by jwhyche · · Score: 3

    Truth hurts. You decided to get personal, I just decided to distance myself from you. You didn't come here to debate, you came to argue. If I can't educate you, I'll educate people that are reading.

    --
    I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
  36. Re:hmm by Orestesx · · Score: 2

    Your trail of "facts" would be compelling if they were true, but they are not. Carter Page was part of the Trump team since at least March 2016 when he was identified by Trump as a foreign policy consultant. Halper was never part of the Trump team and didn't meet Page until July 2016. So I don't know how you think Halper was responsible for Page getting hired by Trump.