Russia influences election

[Holman]

This story has definitely spun out of Trump's control, so we'll see a pseudo-pivot any time now.

Expect a Yuge show of bombast against Russia while quietly resisting NATO allies' calls to extend sanctions.

[Rip]

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., slammed the intelligence community Wednesday for forcing the cancelation of a planned House Intelligence Committee briefing on alleged Russian interference in the U.S. election.

"All we’ve heard from the intelligence community over the last several months is that they could not say that there was any attempt to undermine Hillary Clinton [or] to help Donald Trump," King told Fox News' Megyn Kelly on "The Kelly File." "The consensus was that there was an attempt by the Russians to put a cloud over the election, to create disunity. Well, that’s what’s happening right now, but it’s the intelligence community that’s doing it."

King spoke hours after the committee abruptly canceled the scheduled Thursday briefing after the CIA declined to provide a briefer.

"Somebody has the time to leak it to the Washington Post and the New York Times, but they don’t have the time to come to Congress," said King, a member of the committee. "It’s their job to come. They don’t have any choice. They have to come in, especially when they have created this."

King added that lawmakers have not received any assessment from the CIA that Russia interfered to help Trump win the presidency over Hillary Clinton, allegations that were first reported by the Washington Post Friday.

"There was nothing at all, ever told to us, in fact they said they couldn’t prove it, that there was an attempt to favor one candidate over the other. [James] Clapper, the director of national intelligence, said that publicly on Nov. 17," King told Kelly.

"This violates all protocols and it’s almost as if people in the intelligence community are carrying out a disinformation campaign against the president-elect of the United States," the congressman added. "It’s absolutely disgraceful and if they’re not doing it, then it must be someone in the House or the Senate who’s leaking false information and there should be a full investigation of this."

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/12 ... fresh=true

From the related link inside, "In response to Fox News' initial report, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), which oversees all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies, issued a statement claiming that lawmakers from both parties have received "extensive, detailed classified and unclassified briefings ... since last summer and have continued to do so after Election Day.""

and they all say those briefings never offered any proof of Russian involvement. So what changed and why are they not briefing intel committees of these changes?

[noxiousdog]

and they all say those briefings never offered any proof of Russian involvement. So what changed and why are they not briefing intel committees of these changes?

[Isgrimnur]

What is this, a picture for ants?

[noxiousdog]

What is this, a picture for ants?

Is it tiny? Un bigimged it went off the screen.

[Sepiche]

and they all say those briefings never offered any proof of Russian involvement. So what changed and why are they not briefing intel committees of these changes?

I'm starting to think Rip is a host... whenever he sees a post that would disrupt his worldview he just doesn't see anything. It would explain... a lot.

[Combustible Lemur]

And Trump is openly lying to people and saying that it's only now that we're hearing about Russian involvement in the election.

Truth is a thing of the past now. It may have been a rare commodity before, but openly lying with absolutely no facts to back your wild claims was at least called lying by most folks. Now it's seen as the truth...and any evidence to the contrary is seen as a tool of the "corrupt media".

Four years. Four years of this is ahead of us. I wonder what we'll look like after this is all over?

I wonder how much of this is just modern optics. We have the Internet now, we have the world's library in our pockets, we have the diversity of the world on a screen in our homes.

I don't know that truth ever existed. Now we can see behind the curtain, but the wizard doesn't give a shit, he's too old to change.

It's not like cigarette companies actually thought cigarettes were good for you, or that weed was bath salts, or that gay people were evil, or that brown people were evil. Those were constructs of social engineering and profit.

[Isgrimnur]

What is this, a picture for ants?

Is it tiny? Un bigimged it went off the screen.

200x84 when I try to open it in a new tab.

[BooTx]

boop

[hepcat]

And Trump is openly lying to people and saying that it's only now that we're hearing about Russian involvement in the election.

Truth is a thing of the past now. It may have been a rare commodity before, but openly lying with absolutely no facts to back your wild claims was at least called lying by most folks. Now it's seen as the truth...and any evidence to the contrary is seen as a tool of the "corrupt media".

Four years. Four years of this is ahead of us. I wonder what we'll look like after this is all over?

I wonder how much of this is just modern optics. We have the Internet now, we have the world's library in our pockets, we have the diversity of the world on a screen in our homes.

I don't know that truth ever existed. Now we can see behind the curtain, but the wizard doesn't give a shit, he's too old to change.

The art of lying is perhaps what I'm lamenting the loss of then. Trump has zero subtlety and simple tells you that orange is purple while you're both looking at the same thing.

[malchior]

Especially when there are a ton of rubes and worse people who know and just don't care that just soak it up.

Also Podesta makes a strong argument that the FBI is broken when it comes to cybersecurity.

[Rip]

Especially when there are a ton of rubes and worse people who know and just don't care that just soak it up.

Also Podesta makes a strong argument that the FBI is broken when it comes to cybersecurity.

He is certainly the expert on things that are broken especially cyber-security.

[hepcat]

So the complaints of a robbery victim should be derisively dismissed because they aren't thieves themselves?

[Max Peck]

So the complaints of a robbery victim should be derisively dismissed because they aren't thieves themselves?

If he didn't want to get raped hacked, then he shouldn't have dressed emailed that way.

[Isgrimnur]

From what I understand from cyber professionals, that’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate hack, the server has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.

[NickAragua]

Especially when there are a ton of rubes and worse people who know and just don't care that just soak it up.

Also Podesta makes a strong argument that the FBI is broken when it comes to cybersecurity.

He is certainly the expert on things that are broken especially cyber-security.

Imagine, for a second, if you will, a watermelon. Now, the watermelon has seeds in it, even if it's technically "seedless", since that just means the seeds are tiny and edible. Now, if you want to get the good, solid seeds, you have to accept the fact that they are neither tiny, nor edible, and you have to cut through the watermelon to get at them. And also, once you cut that thing open, it spoils pretty quickly even if you refrigerate it.

What the hell were we talking about again?

[The Meal]

Imagine, for a second, if you will, a watermelon. Now, the watermelon has seeds in it, even if it's technically "seedless", since that just means the seeds are tiny and edible. Now, if you want to get the good, solid seeds, you have to accept the fact that they are neither tiny, nor edible, and you have to cut through the watermelon to get at them. And also, once you cut that thing open, it spoils pretty quickly even if you refrigerate it.

What the hell were we talking about again?

So perfect.

[Zarathud]

The RNC says it defeated the Russian hackers because it blocked one spam e-mail. Clueless.

I can see 7 phishing attempts in my spam folder alone today. So by that metric the RNC is 85% less likely to be targeted than me.

[LordMortis]

The RNC says it defeated the Russian hackers because it blocked one spam e-mail. Clueless.

I can see 7 phishing attempts in my spam folder alone today. So by that metric the RNC is 85% less likely to be targeted than me.

Balderdash. All they had to be doing was using secured cloud computing. Haven't you sat on any management meeting in the last five years.

[malchior]

Balderdash. All they had to be doing was using secured cloud computing. Haven't you sat on any management meeting in the last five years.

I think you just set off my nervous tic. I was just sitting in a client meeting where someone said something to this effect. I helpfully pointed out that the election was heavily affected by a lapse in a cloud account (John Podesta in particular). Oh - gmail isn't the cloud. *HEAD DESK*

[Rip]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/republican- ... 1481850043

[Zarathud]

Beat you to it, Rip.

Lawyers don't manage well. I had to explain to my head partners why you can't just "go back" 6 months after a screwed up database conversion. If I was in on the management meeting, I could have raised the issue before the point of no return.

[Max Peck]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/republican- ... 1481850043

So we're all in agreement that it was Russian hackers. Glad to see you come around.

[$iljanus]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/republican- ... 1481850043

So we're all in agreement that it was Russian hackers. Glad to see you come around.

Fat teen Russian hackers in their mother's basement, of course. Not affiliated with the Russian government.

[malchior]

FBI now agrees with CIA that Russia influenced election in Trump's favor

[Max Peck]

Imagine if the rest of the intelligence community played as fast and loose with the Hatch Act as Comey...

Wondering What U.S. Spy Agencies Think of Donald Trump?

We don’t know for sure what the U.S. intelligence community collectively thinks of president-elect Donald Trump. But thanks to an invaluable federal law, we do know how to find out.

File a Freedom of Information Act Request with the National Security Agency. Ask for any mention of “Donald Trump” on the cross-agency Intellipedia.

We tried it. It works. Believe us, we’ll be repeating our request over and over and over again during Trump’s administration.

[...]

Trump is an obvious national-security risk. American spies and analysts surely know it. Apparently on Nov. 9, 2016 — the day after Trump won a majority of the electoral college despite losing the popular vote by nearly three million votes — someone in the intelligence community created a Trump page on the unclassified part of Intellipedia.

We got our hands on a screenshot of that page, thanks to FOIA. It’s heavily redacted. We don’t know the creator’s identity or the identities of any subsequent editors. We do know that, in the page’s apparent first day of existence, readers and editors accessed it 95 times.

There’s also this warning. “Please review the Hatch Act before editing this page,” the Trump entry reads. The 1939 Hatch Act forbids federal employees from influencing a political campaign.

What’s most interesting to us is that the page exists. And the NSA is totally willing to let us see it, if only we ask. As Trump’s presidency gets underway and his scandals, gaffes and diplomatic screw-ups undoubtedly compound, America’s intelligence professionals will surely hop onto Intellipedia to update a running account of Trump’s misdeeds and their implications.

And every so often, we’ll ask for a copy. You should, too. Start here. Then go here. Godspeed.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

FBI now agrees with CIA that Russia influenced election in Trump's favor

I wonder when the FBI will agree to the conclusion that the FBI influenced the election in Trump's favor?

[Holman]

FBI now agrees with CIA that Russia influenced election in Trump's favor

The takeaway here is really worth emphasizing:

FBI Director James B. Comey and Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. are in agreement with a CIA assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election in part to help Donald Trump win the White House, officials disclosed Friday, as President Obama issued a public warning to Moscow that it could face retaliation.

New revelations about Comey’s position could put to rest suggestions by some lawmakers that the CIA and the FBI weren’t on the same page on Russian President Vladi­mir Putin’s intentions.

The positions of Comey and Clapper were revealed in a message that CIA Director John Brennan sent to the agency’s workforce Friday.

“Earlier this week, I met separately with FBI [Director] James Comey and DNI Jim Clapper, and there is strong consensus among us on the scope, nature, and intent of Russian interference in our presidential election,” Brennan said, according to U.S. officials who have seen the message.

But *we* haven't seen the evidence, right, right? Until every American is admitted to the top-secret briefings, the only reasonable choice is to reject the CIA, FBI, and DNI and trust the FSB.

[LordMortis]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/mcconnell-re ... itics.html

He then added "Look at what a great job the President Elect is doing with transportation already"

[Unagi]

Rip ignores in 3, 2,...

[Rip]

Not sure why I should care what McConnell wants. Never cared for him. Ditto for McCain and Graham.

Just be another investigation like Benghazi with Dems saying one thing and Repubs another. Don't need a select committee to get that. We already have it.

[Holman]

Not sure why I should care what McConnell wants. Never cared for him. Ditto for McCain and Graham.

Just be another investigation like Benghazi with Dems saying one thing and Repubs another. Don't need a select committee to get that. We already have it.

"What difference, at this point, does it make?"

[raydude]

Not sure why I should care what McConnell wants. Never cared for him. Ditto for McCain and Graham.

Just be another investigation like Benghazi with Dems saying one thing and Repubs another. Don't need a select committee to get that. We already have it.

Funny, you'd think that would have been the argument against the Benghazi Select Committee. But I never heard you complain that "you don't need a select committee to get that. We already have it".

[Defiant]

Figured this is as good a thread as any...

The Kremlin has said nearly all communication channels between the US and Russia are frozen, Russian state media is reporting.

Russia said it did not expect Donald Trump’s incoming US administration to reject Nato enlargement, which Russia opposes, overnight, and that almost all communications channels between it and the United States were frozen, the RIA news agency reported.

“Almost every level of dialogue with the United States is frozen. We don’t communicate with one another, or we do so minimally,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

State Department spokesman John Kirby quickly rejected Mr Peskov's statement.

"It's difficult to know exactly what is meant by this comment, but diplomatic engagement with Russia continues across a wide range of issues," Mr Kirby said in statement emailed to Reuters.

link

[Rip]

Figured this is as good a thread as any...

The Kremlin has said nearly all communication channels between the US and Russia are frozen, Russian state media is reporting.

Russia said it did not expect Donald Trump’s incoming US administration to reject Nato enlargement, which Russia opposes, overnight, and that almost all communications channels between it and the United States were frozen, the RIA news agency reported.

“Almost every level of dialogue with the United States is frozen. We don’t communicate with one another, or we do so minimally,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

State Department spokesman John Kirby quickly rejected Mr Peskov's statement.

"It's difficult to know exactly what is meant by this comment, but diplomatic engagement with Russia continues across a wide range of issues," Mr Kirby said in statement emailed to Reuters.

link

But apparently they aren't communicating on whether they are communicating very well. That much is hard to dispute.

[Rip]

The White House opposed a Republican-led push earlier this year to create an executive-branch task force to battle Russia’s covert information operations, according to a document obtained by POLITICO.

Sen. Tom Cotton, a leading GOP defense hawk who has long urged President Barack Obama to take a harder line on Russia, sought to force the White House to create a panel with representatives from a number of government agencies to counter Russian efforts "to exert covert influence," including by exposing Russian "falsehoods, agents of influence, corruption, human rights abuses, terrorism, and assassinations.”

But the administration rejected the call, saying in a letter to Congress that hasn’t been released publicly that the panel would duplicate existing efforts to battle Russian influence operations — an argument Cotton rejects.

His proposed task force drew bipartisan support as part of a larger intelligence authorization bill that passed the House but never got a floor vote in the Senate. The panel would not have been set up in time to have had an impact on Russia’s role in last month’s presidential election — even if the intelligence bill had become law. But the Arkansas senator said in an interview the White House’s dismissal of his proposal is symptomatic of the administration’s lax pre-election attitude toward Russia.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/r ... use-232896

[malchior]

Then why not set one up now? Plus this is Tom Cotton's account around an unreleased letter - with accusations dropped without any context what the larger discussion was. I'll suggest he could be bullshitting *just a little*.

[Zarathud]

Who knows better about the Executive branch's operations -- a grandstanding Republican Senator or the President?

Seriously, this is a very transparent political ploy.

[LordMortis]

Who knows better about the Executive branch's operations -- a grandstanding Republican Senator or the President?

Seriously, this is a very transparent political ploy.

Careful with that rationale. You've only got about 28 days left to use it.

[Zarathud]

I'll amend it to "who should know better" so the statement is evergreen.