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    Default Russian interference, 2020

    Americans are at each other's throats. Politically, socially and culturally, we suspect each other's motives and plain sanity. So certain are we of the other's intent to do the nation harm, some of us have joined political gangs and assaulted one another, resulting in at least 1 death.

    Which is to say: Americans have played into Russian President Vladimir Putin's hands — again. It is assumed he can attack next year's elections if he so chooses, but since no outsider knows exactly how, what comes next is one of the great underlying mystery-dramas of the 2020 election campaign.

    - The fear is dangerous needling of already-fraught U.S. social turmoil.

    The big picture: Espionage and trickery between the West and Russia is not new — it goes back to Peter the Great, 3 centuries ago. But scholars say they are pressed to identify any episode of direct political mischief-making in this long history comparable to the breadth, scale and intensity of the Russian hacking, leaking and social media campaign in the 2016 U.S. election.

    - When it comes to its rivals and enemies, Moscow's objective often is to create chaos, and thus incapacitate the other power as a threat to Russian aims.

    - To get there, the weapon of choice is usually the exploitation of existing divisions in the other society.

    - That is where, in 2016, the U.S. made itself a sitting duck — and where polarized, ultra-bellicose Americans remain perhaps even more exposed to emotional manipulation in the coming election.

    Russia hands in Washington and elsewhere are worried. No one can say with absolute certainty that Putin will attack this time, nor if he does, what means he will use. But what no one disputes is that the country — despite mountains of descriptions of Russia's actions last time — is little-better prepared now to defend itself than it was 3 years ago.

    In 2016, the GRU — Russia's military intelligence arm — carried out the hacking of Clinton adviser John Podesta's emails and documents at the Democratic National Committee, according to the investigative report by special counsel Robert Mueller. At the same time, the Kremlin-backed Internet Research Agency was behind the massive social media campaign to provoke discord.

    President Trump and Republican leaders at the federal and state levels have stifled efforts to form a national political strategy to combat a redux of the Russian campaign. One reason: Trump seems to view such efforts as challenges to the legitimacy of his 2016 victory.

    While the defenses remain down, Trump appears especially prepared to stoke rawpolitical, societal and social emotions, often amplified by political commentators and talk show hosts at Fox and other media outlets.

    - "If Putin is going to throw the match of chaos, he needs kindling here. Our political system provides far too much of it right now," says Richard Fontaine, CEO at the Center for a New American Security.

    - Some possibilities of what's next:

    - Aric Toler, lead researcher at Bellingcat, a European investigative organization, says that if he had to choose one possible Putin plan for the U.S., it would be more of the same — "a lot of ad hoc actors within and from outside the Russian government/security services with similar targets as in 2016."

    - Mark Galeotti, a leading scholar on Russian intelligence and author of "We need to talk about Putin," foresees an effort "to escalate and magnify the inevitable divisions that become exacerbated in election times. With Trump running, and many Democrat voices prone to castigate his supporters as racists and morons, these opportunities are likely to be plentiful."


    The bottom line: "I see no reason to expect that U.S./Western actions since 2016 have changed Moscow’s appetite for risk. Buckle up," said Andrew Weiss, a Russia expert at the Carnegie Endowment.

    A wild card: A Russia expert contact of mine formerly with Britain's MI-6 said that, if Putin's strategy is what's expected — to do whatever will best polarize the U.S. — he may choose to do nothing. "Trump seems to be doing a pretty good job all by himself, depending on where you sit, so it might be easier to leave well alone."


    https://www.axios.com/russian-interf...9faa6a760.html

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    just as I suspected very few if any Americans are concerned about Russian meddling

    thread fail, Putin laughs

    Трамп готов к переизбранию!

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    Quote Originally Posted by reagansghost View Post
    just as I suspected very few if any Americans are concerned about Russian meddling

    thread fail, Putin laughs

    Трамп готов к переизбранию!
    Socialists refuse to accept election results (unless they win).
    "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man."
    — Joe Biden on Obama.

    Socialism is just the modern word for monarchy.

    D.C. has become a Guild System with an hierarchy and line of accession much like the Royal Court or priestly classes.

    Private citizens are perfectly able of doing a better job without "apprenticing".

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    Quote Originally Posted by reagansghost View Post
    just as I suspected very few if any Americans are concerned about Russian meddling
    What do you want people to do--talk about it some more?

    Are you concerned about the 2018 interference?

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    Quote Originally Posted by reagansghost View Post
    just as I suspected very few if any Americans are concerned about Russian meddling

    thread fail, Putin laughs

    Трамп готов к переизбранию!
    Russiaphobic garbage

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    Quote Originally Posted by reagansghost View Post
    just as I suspected very few if any Americans are concerned about Russian meddling

    thread fail, Putin laughs

    Трамп готов к переизбранию!

    What is Moscow Mitch's excuse for pretending that Russia isn't going to try to meddle around in 2020?
    "Conservatism is the blind and fear-filled worship of dead radicals." -- Mark Twain

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    No, Ameticansare not. Liberals are using it as an excuse for unseemly behavior.
    "Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything." Joseph Stalin
    The USA has lost WWIV to China with no other weapons but China Virus and some cash to buy democrats.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Celticguy View Post
    No, Ameticansare not.
    I just posted that in English

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    Quote Originally Posted by reagansghost View Post
    I just posted that in English
    That's nice.
    "Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything." Joseph Stalin
    The USA has lost WWIV to China with no other weapons but China Virus and some cash to buy democrats.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Celticguy View Post
    No, Ameticansare not. Liberals are using it as an excuse for unseemly behavior.
    Russia interfering in our election is an excuse? WTF The first half of the Mueller report was a textbook on Russian interfering in our election and showing how Trump's people were involved. There are Trumpies under indictment and some in jail. You call it an excuse? Are you on Putin's side like Trump ?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gonzomin View Post
    Russia interfering in our election is an excuse? WTF The first half of the Mueller report was a textbook on Russian interfering in our election and showing how Trump's people were involved. There are Trumpies under indictment and some in jail. You call it an excuse? Are you on Putin's side like Trump ?
    Prosecutions demonstrated no impact.
    You lost because your girl ran a horrible campaign which no one could overlook.
    "Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything." Joseph Stalin
    The USA has lost WWIV to China with no other weapons but China Virus and some cash to buy democrats.

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    " First they came for the journalists...
    We don't know what happened after that . "

    Maria Ressa.

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    In 2016, the GRU — Russia's military intelligence arm — carried out the hacking of Clinton adviser John Podesta's emails and documents at the Democratic National Committee, according to the investigative report by special counsel Robert Mueller. At the same time, the Kremlin-backed Internet Research Agency was behind the massive social media campaign to provoke discord.
    complete horse shit.

    https://www.thenation.com/article/qu...er-russiagate/
    The inference here is that the IRA was a part of the Russian government’s “sweeping and systematic” interference campaign. Yet Mueller’s team has been forced to admit in court that this was a false insinuation. Earlier this month, a federal judge rebuked Mueller and the Justice Department for suggesting that the troll farm’s social media activities “were undertaken on behalf of, if not at the direction of, the Russian government.” US District Judge Dabney Friedrich noted that Mueller’s February 2018 indictment of the IRA “does not link the [IRA] to the Russian government” and alleges “only private conduct by private actors.” Jonathan Kravis, a senior prosecutor on the Mueller team, acknowledged that this is the case. “[T]he report itself does not state anywhere that the Russian government was behind the Internet Research Agency activity,” Kravis told the court.

    Kravis is correct. The Mueller report did not state that the Kremlin was behind the social media campaign; it only disingenuously suggested it. Mueller also goes to great lengths to paint it as a sophisticated operation that “had the ability to reach millions of U.S. persons.” Yet, as we already know, most of the Russian social media content was juvenile clickbait that had nothing to do with the election (only 7 percent of IRA’s Facebook posts mentioned either Trump or Clinton). There is also no evidence that the political content reached a mass audience, and to the extent it reached anyone, most of it occurred after the election

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    n the report, Mueller goes to great lengths to insinuate—without directly asserting—that two key figures in the Trump-Russia affair, Konstanin Kilimnik and Joseph Mifsud, acted as Kremlin agents or intermediaries. In the process, he omits or minimizes extensive evidence that casts doubt on their supposed Russia connections or makes clear their far more extensive Western ties. Mueller ignores the fact that the State Department described Kilimnik as a “sensitive source” who was regularly supplying inside information on Ukrainian politics. And Mueller emphasizes that Mifsud “had connections to Russia” and “maintained various Russian contacts,” but doesn’t ever mention that he has deep connections in Western intelligence and

    Stephan Roh, a Swiss lawyer who has previously represented Mifsud, has maintained that Mifsud “is not a Russian spy but a Western intelligence co-operator.” Whatever the case, it is puzzling that Mueller emphasized Mifsud’s “connections to Russia” but ignored his connections to governments in the West. It’s also baffling that none of this was clarified when the FBI interviewed Mifsud in February 2017—which raises a whole new question for Mueller.

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    CrowdStrikeOut: Mueller’s Own Report Undercuts Its Core Russia-Meddling Claims
    https://www.realclearinvestigations....ng_claims.html

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