January 6,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Misleading the American people to advance a political narrative has been a hallmark of President Obama’s foreign and domestic policy. The most recent example is the administration’s attempt to conflate the hacking of the Democratic Party with potential cyberattacks on the US Election.
Last week, federal officials went as far as to tell the Washington Post that malware linked to Russian hackers was found on a laptop at Burlington Electric, a Vermont power company. By Monday the Post had recanted, writing that investigators “are finding evidence that the incident is not linked to any Russian government effort.”
The Obama administration and many Democrats as well as Republicans led by Sen. John McCain and Lindsey Graham have ordered hearings and are pushing the Russian hacking story instead of focusing on the hacking of Hillary Clintons unsecured servers and Clinton operative John Podesta being caught in a basic phishing hack giving access to all his emails.
In October the Clinton campaign declined to confirm the authenticity of the WikiLeak documents but called them “stolen, and ” the latest move by Russian operatives they claimed were trying to help Donald Trump.
The problem for Democrats is the WikiLeak released emails, proved unequivocally that the DNC had rigged the primary race against Bernie Sanders, worked in collusion with the mainstream media, the Hillary received debate questions ahead of time, that DNC staffers used inflammatory and derogatory language toward minorities, women and gays, but the most damming was the implication that the entire media appeared to be on the Clinton’s payroll.
Recount efforts failed as Trump picked up more votes and voting irregularities in Detroit pointed to DNC tampering.
Today DNI Chief Clapper took swipe at Trump, Assange as he defended the Russia Hack Intel. This is of course is the same James Clapper who in 2014 the Washington Post featured a story in which a group of congressmen led by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) were pushing for President Obama to fire, the director of national intelligence, claiming he misled Congress about the extent of the NSA’s domestic surveillance activity on American citizens.
NBC reported, Clapper without offering any evidence said Russia had “clearly assumed an even more aggressive cyber posture by increasing cyber espionage operations, leaking data stolen from these operations, and targeting political infrastructures systems.”
In mid-December Jeh Johnson head of the Department of Homeland Security explained DHS’s cyber team was ready on election night and they didn’t see “anything that affected the ballot count,” he said.
When pressed, asking whether he could assure Americans that Russian hacking did not affect the outcome of the election.
Johnson said, “We see no evidence that hacking by any actor altered the ballot count for any cyber actions that deprived people of voting,”.
I don’t believe for a second that the Russian hacks affected the election. The point is that a foreign government allowed attacks on our country. A government led by communists Communists who are opposed to our way of life and freedoms.
Not sure why Trump wants to pander to these enemies of ours. We need to remain strong and on guard. When we appear weak and indecisive, the enemy is emboldened.
Trump is not pandering to the Russians. He is simply refuting the Left’s charge that the Russians gifted him the election.
The hacks and disinformation INFLUENCED the election. This is what Russia does around the world. Russian media was critical of HRC and favorable of DT. They feared HRC and wanted a puppet.
The intelligence community and congress are in agreement. The above post is one person’s opinion, not a researched piece of journalism. The words “Proved unequivocally” do not provide proof. Those “Misleading the American people to advance a political narrative” are pretending that the Russian hacks and subsequent leaks did not influence the election. The leaks were in the news every day leading up to the election. The timing was was for major impact – recency.
Trump will be president, his election forever tainted.
nice try , cant you just face it that Hillary is a career criminal, a terrible candidate , a terrible human and was found out
Well put 7:13am.
James, your opinion is noted.
Now Trump will return the favor to Putin. One hand washes the other.
I find it galling that the Left is up in arms over this. Up in arms over influencing the media against HRC. Let’s not forget that the stories behind this influence were not fake news, but actually real news. True news. Now the fact that most of the media were at this same time, basically acting as the press office of the DNC and has been for years, is beyond me. This very media caught giving Hillary debate questions in advance. Give me a break!
This has nothing to do with Hilary Clinton. It has everything to do with whether or not a foreign government hacked our computers. Appeasement in the guise of “let’s get along” and “let’s give everyone a chance” is disgusting.
If members of the intelligence community are slanting their findings because they are upset Hillary lost or Donald won, then they are traitors, pure an simple. But the same can and must be said for those who would stick their heads in the sand in the face of apparent foreign aggression. Violating our cyber space is no different than bombing Pearl Harbor, killing an ambassador in an embassy or attacking the WTC. If we are not resolute, we fail.
Boy, do miss Barry Goldwater or someone else who would call this communist pandering exactly what it is.
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8:55…it has to do with HRC!! The DNC was hacked by Russians and it should have be treated as a treasonous act – MONTHS AGAO!!! If Obama declared the outrage and punished the Russians when it happened, instead of after the election, it would have been a sincere response. Yet, if he did, then he would have been legitimizing the information that was in the hacked emails, which during the election, all democrats were saying they would not confirm the emails were accurate or the information was truthful. Better for Hillary and Obama to deny and pretend emails were not truthful because what was in them was deplorable, disgusting, bigoted, evidence of rampant cheating, conspiring with the media, etc. Obama politicized this issue to delegitimize Trump, plain and simple. Where was the outrage and punishment for other hacking instances…..NONE! Obama has done nothing in 8 years to punish, combat or stand up to cyber attacks…NOTHING!! Oh wait…he did say “cut it out’ to Putin. BTW, we hacked into Germany’s emails also, our ally, so cyber attacking is conducted by all countries now – it’s not right, but Obama’s sanctimonious bs is, just that.
Also, the media and liberals deafening response to Obama’s treatment of Israel and release of Gitmo terrorists is shameful. Why are American Jews not speaking up about this? Is their loyalty to the Democratic Party stronger than to fellow Jews? Liberals response to Trump and their “fear” of his leadership is discussed hourly on these liberal channels yet liberals show no fear for releasing dangerous terrorists or weakening Israel? WTH is that about… seriously, please liberals, help me understand the deafening silence on these issues, I’m truly curious… Anyone?
1153 – – i think you miss the point. This is not a blue or a red thing, its a red white and blue thing. The Russians have stated their desire to bury us for the past 70 years. We have all been sleeping while they have attempted to undermine our democracy. That’s why I say it has nothing to do with Hilary or Donald or Barack – – its all about protecting our country. Donald’s pandering is as aborhent as Obama’s waffling and Hilary’s willful indifference. What is our government doing now in response to our sovereign. integrity?