Let’s not start another Cold War over the fact that John Podesta fell for a phishing scam

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Glenn Reynolds:

If there’s any single statement that President Obama probably wishes he could undo, it was his mockery of Mitt Romney during the 2012 presidential debates. Referring to Romney’scharacterization of Russia as America’s greatest geopolitical foe, Obama said the 1980s are calling and they want their foreign policy back.

Now of course, Democrats are up in arms about the Russians, sounding like madcap John Birchers from the 1960s. As Twitter wag IowaHawk noted, they didn’t get upset when Russia invaded Crimea; they didn’t throw down when Russia shot down a civilian airliner over Ukraine; but stealing John Podesta’s password via a phishing scam is apparently grounds for restarting the Cold War. Well, only one of these crimes constitutes a threat to Democrats’ political power.

It’s easy to mock the Democrats’ hysteria over all this, which seems mostly an inability to accept that they lost a presidential election they thought was in the bag. Instead, they blame a password-phishing scam that Clinton campaign chief Podesta fell for like somebody’s technologically challenged grandmother. (Another IowaHawk tweet: “Breaking: State Department expels 20 Nigerian diplomats after Podesta fails to receive $1 million wire transfer from nephew of General Okezi.”) And, partly to cover for Hillary Clinton and to delegitimize Donald Trump, much of the press has talked about “election hacking” in a way that suggests — entirely falsely — that the Russians were changing votes instead of (maybe) being the ones who copied embarrassing emails from Podesta and gave them to WikiLeaks. (I say “maybe” because some people, such as Ars Technica’s security editor Dan Goodin, don’t think that the Obama administration has made the case that the Russians were behind it.)

But there’s more to the story, and some of it is worth more than mockery.

Whoever stole Podesta’s emails (and if I were a betting man, I’d bet it was the Russians) was able to do so because of basic failures in email security. Those failures have been a hallmark of this administration — we’ve had several really major hacks by foreign intelligence services, including one characterized by experts as a cyber Pearl Harbor, and yet none created the hysteria that Podesta’s emails have. Clinton’s private, illegal email server was almost certainly compromised by foreign intelligence services, and if so, had she been elected president she might have been open to blackmail and manipulation.

So let’s look ahead: In the next administration, we need to pay a lot more attention to cybersecurity. People love to be online — Obama famously refused to give up his BlackBerry when he took office, even though experts thought it insecure, even with modifications. But anything that’s online is vulnerable to hacking. In Neal Stephenson’s futuristic novel The Diamond Age, all the really important people do everything, from correspondence to reading the news, on paper, in part because it’s more secure. That future could soon be our present, at least if we want to be safe from spies.

We also need to pay more attention to civil society, which all the post-election denial and hysteria aren’t helping. Of course Russia tries to manipulate our politics, just as the United States has historically manipulated the politics of other countries, most notably Europe after World War II, when we secretly funded moderate-left parties in order to prevent electoral victories by communists. (Some say we should be doing something similar  to stop Putin-allied parties from winning in Europe.)

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So, if the Democrats actually believe Russians hacked and affected the 2016 election, why are they vowing to fight, obstruct, hold their breath, stamp their feet and be totally uncooperative instead of joining together with the Republicans to face this desperate threat?

Oh… I forgot. “Democrats.”

Never mind.

Again the demacratic donkey proves why its the most stupidists political animal on the earth like the line from SWING ON A STAR gose HIS BACK IS BRAWNY BUT HIS MIND IS WEAK,HE’S JUST PLAIN STUPID WITH A STUBBORN STREAK

Obama is staging troops on the Russian border. I wonder if he yet realizes giving away the missile defense for absolutely nothing was a bad idea?

@Bill- Deplorable Me:

Be careful, Greg will respond with a strongly worded reply…

Hey Al Gore and Greenpeace we have snow here in Northern California(State of Jefferson)you green nuts were telling us there would be no more snow becuase of Global Warming

You didn’t see this here, and if you did, I’m not the one who posted it.

(Actually, the NCCIC document has been classified TLP: White, and may now be freely distributed.)

GRIZZLY STEPPE—Russian Malicious Cyber Activity—December 29, 2016

Maybe president-elect Trump should be sent a copy? Of course that doesn’t mean he’d look at it.

@Greg: Still looking for a label for people like you, since you’re basically the leftist version of a birther

Russianist? No…

Regardless…

Hey Greg! 2008 called, it wants it’s irrational reasons for losing an election from the losing side conspiracy theories back…

Mimetic Mirroring…hilarious. When the leftist becomes the fundamental right buffoon they thought they were fighting…

@Nathan Blue, #7:

As far as I’m concerned, anyone who hasn’t seriously questioned president elect Trump’s relationship with Russia—or his susceptibility to Russian pressuring, given the complexity of his foreign business entanglements and the likely targeting of his own business and personal computer records and electronic communications—is taking naiveté and gullibility to new and entirely unprecedented levels.

The dangerous thing isn’t only what people don’t know; it’s that they don’t want to know. They don’t even want to hear the questions, let alone find answers. Right-wing politics seems to be rendering many of the elected officials of our government stupid. Throwing out highfalutin intellectual terms like “mimetic mirroring” doesn’t really hide the simplicity of that observation, or the many clues that it may be an entirely accurate one.

@Greg: The simplicity is what escaped you in the first place, and now that the right is mimicking the left’s antics…rather poorly…you suddenly are on the other end of it and cry foul.

Mimetic Mirroring. Simply put, it’s when a person or group, in an effort to fight an injustice, eventually become worse than they’re perceived enemy…while also committing even worse injustices. This is so essential to modern human thought, and yet

I grew up when we were all fighting against racism, sexism, intolerance, etc. I left the liberal movement when the movement became more evil than it’s enemy. No progress, only sliding backwards.

Now the left is passe, a fad that never got old for some, because it fills them with such hate…and addiction.

Democracy is a balance, junior. Things swing, and when you advocate for keeping the pendulum at one side of scale, the whole things falls over…

…because you want tyranny.

@Greg: Oh, and pulled from another FA article:

HANNITY: Can you say to the American people, unequivocally, that you did not get this information about the DNC, John Podesta’s emails, can you tell the American people 1,000 percent that you did not get it from Russia or anybody associated with Russia?

JULIAN ASSANGE: Yes. We can say, we have said, repeatedly that over the last two months that our source is not the Russian government and it is not a state party.

So your Russian bullsh*t is now void, right?

Time to fabricate some more fake news…

@Nathan Blue, #9:

Trump may be onto something with this repetition business. Let’s try again:

As far as I’m concerned, anyone who hasn’t seriously questioned president elect Trump’s relationship with Russia—or his susceptibility to Russian pressuring, given the complexity of his foreign business entanglements and the likely targeting of his own business and personal computer records and electronic communications—is taking naiveté and gullibility to new and entirely unprecedented levels.

That little exchange between FOX News’s Pillsbury Dough Boy and some guy hiding out in an Ecuadorian embassy to avoid extradition on multiple molestation and rape charges hardly addresses the issue, does it?

I tuned in the see what hysterical comments Greg would make today. I was not disappointed. Greg has been trumped and he does not even know it. He reminds me of my 2.5 year old Grand Daughter explaining why peas and carrots are bad for you. Now that I had my laugh for the day, I will read some posts by competent people who think.

So, I take it you can’t think of any intelligent response to the concerns raised in post #8 either. You just attack anybody who has something more than an empty echo box between their ears.

Ryan calls Assange a ‘sycophant for Russia’

That would be an instance of someone stating the obvious. Yet the totally obvious is seemingly lost on Donald Trump. You have elected a nincompoop.

GOP lawmakers slam Assange after Trump praise, highlighting Russia rift

@Greg: This why doubts exist and why everything this administration offers up as fact has to be reexamined.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/report-fbi-had-private-company-examine-dncs-hacked-servers/article/2610921

The Obama administration is either totally incompetent or supremely dishonest. Possibly both. But they have NO credibility and have turned the Justice Department and intelligence community into political lackeys.

Trust must be restored.

@Randy:

Greg is not one to disappoint when he shows his ass instead of a rational thought. Greg is quick to embrace the fake news argument of the day created by the alt left news media. But, he retreats like the French military when it becomes more than obvious the fake news is just that, fake news….

@Greg: #8

10 Things The Right Can Teach The Left About Accepting The Reality Of Trump

1) It’s Okay to Be Sad

2) Accept the Rules of the Game

This is very much like saying the Cleveland Indians tied the Cubs in the 2016 World Series because they both scored 27 runs over the course of the seven-game series. It’s a statistic without any meaning at all. We don’t elect presidents via a national vote — very far from it — so the idea that California and New York going big for Clinton is somehow meaningful is a non sequitur.

3) Admit Your Candidate Has Flaws

4) Don’t Follow the Media’s or Social Media’s Lead

5) Recognize Not Everyone Shares Your View

6) Don’t Keep Doing the Same Ineffective Things to Fight Trump

7) Put the Best Construction on Trump

8) Don’t Lose Your Sanity

9) Be Prepared to Like Something Trump Says or Does

10) Let Trump Remind You Why Our Constitution Is So Great

President Obama Awards Himself A “Distinguished Public Service Medal”

After eight years of magnanimous humility, servility and deferential governance toward his political opposition, ‘President selfless‘ awards himself the Medal of Distinguished Public Service. Thus, President Obama officially declares himself the greatest public servant during his own tenure.

No. Really, not kidding. He did.

http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/herald-dispatch.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/b9/db935272-c652-592f-ac89-2e90f2ac06b9/586d660003643.image.jpg

A more accurate image of the narcissist in chief….

comment image

@July 4th American: He certainly deserves an award for his service to humanity. He gave the American people a look at socialism and a demonstration of the massive failure of liberalism. He also clearly reminded us how ugly and terrible racism and the use of racism as a political weapon is. He stood as a shining example that, no matter how big a celebrity the media makes a person out to be, without some operational and functional experience in the real world (not the pretend socialist agitator world), a person is worthless as a leader.

Thank you, Mr. Obama. Thank you.

And still no one has offered a single intelligent comment about the concerns in post #8. No one will acknowledge that a totally obvious issue of potentially enormous consequence to the security of the nation even exists. Because Obama, or Clinton, or whatever.

What we’ve got here is a totally unprecedented level of negligence in vetting a presidential candidate—which is to say, he wasn’t vetted in any way, shape, or form on any serious concern whatsoever—followed by a refusal to acknowledge the warnings of our own intelligence community. Unless I miss my guess, the next phase will be denial as things begin to go off the rails, followed by efforts to blame somebody else once the train wreck occurs.

There’s a fair chance the GOP will impeach this guy and attempt to replace him with Pence midway through his first term. I’m not sure if that was their plan all along, but I’m sure it crossed many minds. Unfortunately, they probably won’t manage that any more effectively than they’ve managed anything else over the past six years.

@Greg:

which is to say, he wasn’t vetted in any way, shape, or form

So you’re back to the eligibility issue for Obama? Not an American citizen, currently an Indonesian citizen, using a dead person’s SS number. Yes you are correct in stating that we know nothing about Obama.
Uh, you were talking Obama. Right?

@RedTeam, #20:

I know it’s difficult for many in the Red Hat Brigade, owing to the presence of several words having more than 3 syllables…

As far as I’m concerned, anyone who hasn’t seriously questioned president elect Trump’s relationship with Russia—or his susceptibility to Russian pressuring, given the complexity of his foreign business entanglements and the likely targeting of his own business and personal computer records and electronic communications—is taking naiveté and gullibility to new and entirely unprecedented levels.

Newsflash! The president elect is a big fan of intelligence.

The dishonest media likes saying that I am in Agreement with Julian Assange – wrong. I simply state what he states, it is for the people…

…to make up their own minds as to the truth. The media lies to make it look like I am against “Intelligence” when in fact I am a big fan!

@Greg:

Obama has been the most American hating president in history bar none. He was not properly vetted pre presidency nor will he be vetted post presidency because the preatorian guard will produce more gaslight fake news.

We will never know who or what obama was or is.

@July 4th American:

We will never know who or what obama was or is.

Oh, we know. Just many don’t choose to believe it.

@Greg:

words having more than 3 syllables…

more than three? Ge Or Gaa that’s three. Sore Or Os that’s three, nope not more than three, so we got that. Kinda like Grr regg Gah three again. No most is not MORE than three.

@Greg:

No one will acknowledge that a totally obvious issue of potentially enormous consequence to the security of the nation even exists. What we’ve here is a totally unprecedented level of negligence in vetting a presidential candidate—which is to say, he wasn’t vetted in any way, shape, or form on any serious concern whatsoever

Well, Greg, there has been plenty of concern for national security when Hillary was hanging national security out on her clothes line at home, where she kept her private, secret, unsecured, FOIA-evading server. There was also lots of concern as Obama and Holder ran guns to Mexican cartels and as Obama invited ISIS to conquer the Middle East. Obama trucking in unvetted Islamic “refugees” raised concerns as well.

But you liberals didn’t care.

Obama was the least vetted candidate that turned out to have needed the most. Not only has he proven incompetent but he goes out of his way to damage America.

But you liberals didn’t care.

Now you (pretend to) worry about a leader (LEADER) that actually perceives the threats and puts people other than PC overly-conscious ideologues in positions to actually DEAL with threats (as opposed to developing the plans to blame others for the failures). Obama can’t even SAY THE WORDS of what the primary threat is.

You really need a different game, Greg. You’re no good at this one.