The news has been full of this story: The Obama Administration has expelled Russian diplomats and closed two of their facilities in retaliation for Russian hacking of the political process in the United States during the 2016 election. The case against Russia was laid out in a public FBI report called “GRIZZLY STEPPE – Russian Malicious Cyber Activity” [tl;dr]. Donald Trump is of course vulnerable to negative perception on this issue because of his various ties to Russian interests.
In response to what Obama did, Trump told reporters:
I know a lot about hacking. And hacking is a very hard thing to prove. So it could be somebody else. And I also know things that other people don’t know, and so they cannot be sure of the situation. You’ll find out on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Bloomberg reports:
President-elect Donald Trump praised Vladimir Putin as “very smart” after the Russian leader ruled out a tit-for-tat retaliation for the Obama administration’s expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats over cyberattacks aimed at interfering with the U.S. election.
So I’ll identify the “conspiracy theory” as the claim that Russia was behind the hacking of Democratic political emails. That they were hacked is fact, but the controversy is over who did it.
The story has legs: Vermont Governor, Peter Shumlin, joined in the Russki conspiracy theory (referring to malware found on a laptop owned by a Vermont Electric utility):
One of the world’s leading thugs, Vladimir Putin, has been attempting to hack our electric grid, which we rely upon to support our quality of life, economy, health, and safety.
It’s entirely possible that what Trump said is true and that he may have known things that others including myself didn’t on the subject. He could have read (or heard about) the ARS Technica article the day before saying “White House fails to make case that Russian hackers tampered with election,” or perhaps he saw the Fortune headline earlier in the day, “Grizzly Misstep: Security Experts Call Russia Hacking Report ‘Poorly Done,’ ‘Fatally Flawed.” I didn’t know about those until today, a day after I learned about the Trump comment. (I should add that the FBI is not the only group that identified Russian intelligence in the DNC hack.)
I am tempted to play the apologist and say that obviously the intelligence services aren’t going to show all their sources and methods to the public. In any case, news reports say that Trump hasn’t had an intelligence briefing on the hacking report yet, and he personally wouldn’t be competent to judge them if he had. When he does, then he will certainly know more about the subject than others, but if indeed there is more to the intelligence community’s case against Russia, the only way we’re going to hear about it is from Donald Trump, and that’s unlikely.
Update: The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has released its own report.
Update 2: It was the Russians. Indictments obtained for Russians charged in hacking.
Read more:
- Election Hack Report FAQ: What You Need to Know – WordFence blog
- Grizzly Steppe IP and Hash Analysis – Jerry Gamblin
- Grizzly Steppe IP address list – GitHub
- Bears in the Midst: Intrusion into the Democratic National Committee – Crowdstrike
Julian Assange posted about “Seth Rich” who has been dead since the early 80’s. As I have said on several other news sites, this is old Cuban/Russian intel gathered by Pablo Escobar and his KGB counterparts for this day. Yes, they did calculate that far ahead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOWVuux7ajE
Why they might make Putin Tsar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdHT-X4njJ4&t=8s
Trump now places blame for hacking on domestic source:
As I explained to you once before, Seth Rich was born on January 1, 1989. He graduated Central High School in Omaha in 2007 and Creighton University in 2011, pretty impressive credentials for a dead man.
Doc, you may find interesting what Crowdstrike shared with the public in June about its forensic investigation of the DNC hack. (Crowdstrike was the private firm hired by the DNC).
https://www.crowdstrike.com/blog/bears-midst-intrusion-democratic-national-committee/
I also note that Crowdstrike will be holding a webinar on January 4th at 2:00 p.m.EST:
“In this CrowdCast, CrowdStrike experts Adam Meyers, VP of Intelligence, and Dmitri Alperovitch, Co-Founder & CTO, will provide a detailed overview of the history of Russian intelligence influence operations going back decades and provide a deep dive overview of various BEAR (including FANCY BEAR AND COZY BEAR) intrusion sets and their tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs). They will also discuss the considerable attribution evidence that CrowdStrike has collected from a variety of investigations into their operations and lay out the case for the Russian government connection to these hacks.”
https://www.crowdstrike.com/resources/crowdcasts/bear-hunting-history-and-attribution-of-russian-intelligence-operations/
Trump already wasn’t competent to judge the Apprentice; why on Earth would he be competent to judge anything???
I admire (not) how your authorities are willingly giving the keys of your country to a known Russian puppet/mole.
Maybe you should make it a tad more official by arranging a simultaneous ceremony on Jan 21st, like this:
http://www.thehistoryreader.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/correct-copy-656×527.jpg
I’d suggest inviting Angela Lansbury, but not enough people would get it, I fear.
His last name was McCarthy and he’s been dead for decades. Now, why did Assange use decades old KGB intel? Would you like and official statement from me? Send an investigator and I’ll tell people the real truth. Not an “investigator” like reportedly convicted felon Mike Volin, Nancy Pelosi’s b****, who has no intention of disclosing the KGB/Medellin Cartel info of the early 80’s.
I do.
this sort of got me laughing….
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38494455
they vote in the GOP to `drain the swamp’, and the first thing they do is make it more difficult!
so is it because they are scared that trump is going to step on his dick?
@roadburner:
The first thing all fascist regimes do is to make sure that all their future crimes will be deemed “legal”. Par for the course.
I used to find Nancy’s delusional sidetracks to be entertaining, but I’ve grown tired of them. I guess I’m just growing old and cranky.
In order to give an official statement, you first have to be an official of something. “Crackpots-R-Us” doesn’t count.
I know quite a few who would get it, but I also get your point that it would fly over the heads of most people.
—-
First things first. On November 22, 2016, exactly two weeks after the election, Trump announced:
“The law’s totally on my side. The president can’t have a conflict of interest.”
p.s. Besides the obvious fascist nature of this declaration, it just irks the hell out of me because it is so nonsensical–the second sentence negates the first sentence. What he apparently means to say is “The law’s totally on my side. The president [may] have a conflict of interest.”
About the only good thing about Doc closing down the blog is that we will never have to read another comment by Nancy or Cody Judy. I could add a few names to that list.
I think it is the other way around: Ex-con Judy will no longer have to read a comment from us. Ex-con Judy can still ramble on endlessly on his blog and his accounts at Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc. (So those not getting enough ex-con Judy, i.e., nobody, will still be able to get their fix.)
But, unlike here, ex-con Judy will be able to control the comments on his accounts, so he can blissfully live in a world where his lies go unchallenged.
I myself have gotten crankier toward birthers.
As for this place, I appreciate the friendships and camaraderie developed here, and very much appreciate the broad debunking and at least semi-destruction of the birther myths it has fostered.
Unfortunately, with the demise of Birther Report, this place is now about the last place on the internet for birthers such as trader jack to make their inane and disingenuous arguments, except for (as has been mentioned) their own Facebook accounts and blogs and things they themselves control.
Should Doc just ban them all? No. Let the few remaining toads have their final croaking say. That’s in keeping with what the spirit of this place has always been.
And we will politely, or at least a politely as we can muster, shoot down their bullsh*t until the last dog dies, and then thank each other, and especially thank Kevin Davidson, and all go our merry ways.
And I, for one, will be glad it’s done.
But like Kevin Davidson, most of us who stood up against birtherism will at least occasionally find some new immoral, anti-American outrage to stand up against, in whatever way we can and feel we should.
Why? Because it’s who we are.
I have no idea what claims she makes because I have been skipping over them for some time. I generally do the same to Cody now, but I have picked up a few things, usually after somebody quoted him.
It;s funny Judy freely posts his nonsense here but I Tweeted one thing he didn’t like and I was immediately blocked.
That’s because like most birthers Judy is a coward. It’s the same thing with his youtube videos.
I always thought Dickens painted a good picture of Judy when he wrote the character of Uriah Heep.
you did find out that the electric grid was never attacked, and that the computer was not connected to the grid, so I guess Russia must not have done those things at all.
Could have been anyone attacking anything, but you can not scare the public by saying it was not the
Russians, but , even if it was, so what.
The grids are open to all of the countries , are they not.
USA looks at everything, everyone looks at what they can , and if they can’t , they try to hack in and see what is happening..
Jack, the story was that they found Malware on the power systems computers. I know you think you are casting doubt wit your bullshit, but all you are doing is proving that you haven’t a clue what are talking about.
Some particularly disagreeable characters are congregating in the comment section of birther YouTube videos.
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ib98zR01ys
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hyyK1opzyY
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D47i8VsNYgo
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2i21F6DVeU
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8frqVINnQjc
I hate YouTube’s comment engine. Facebook’s is almost as bad.
I rolled a few truth grenades into some of those threads. It’ll be interesting to see how long it takes Carl to realize that he forgot to ban me from his new channel 😉
Article updated with link to new DNI report on hacking
:
https://www.scribd.com/document/335885580/Unclassified-version-of-intelligence-report-on-Russian-hacking-during-the-2016-election
I wonder if the Surprise, AZ Teabaggers are going to start a petition to have Sheriff Paul Penzone looking into Trump’s alleged treasonous connections with Russia? I think God would look favorably on that.
Only if We The Petition petition it to petition the sheriff. 😉
I assume you meant “We the People”?
Yeah, like it’s not going to happen. These teabaggers would still adore Trump if Putin pulled down his pants on live TV and the Donald kissed him on the ass.
New Quinnipiac poll has Trump’s approval rating at 37%, which may be a record low for a president-elect.
Obama’s approval rating in the same poll is 55%.