#russian hack

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“I've just been reading about the cyberwar launched by the Russian government against America and nearly all of its Fortune 500 companies. It is mind-numbingly broad and dangerous. The attack did not come from the standard, Hollywood model of computer geeks in a basement spearfishing emails. 

Nor was it an operation where in a USB was dropped by an agent and then accidently pocketed by some low-level employee who plugs it into a networked computer at this-and-such agency. Rather, in an operation that likely took years to stand up, the vulnerability exploited was through a software provider with thousands of corporate and governmental clients. 

That company - Solarwinds - was hacked and a virus was inserted into the root program of their database-management software. Then, when the company sent out one of its regular updates, thousands of agencies and private companies downloaded the hack onto the systems - completely unaware that this routine maintenance had just granted network access to the S.V.R., the Russian equivalent to the C.I.A. 

It's brilliant, really. Brilliant, devastating, and demanding a response. One that certainly won't come with Trump still in office, that traitorous fool. Couple all this with reports last week that the current administration is preventing the incoming Biden team from meeting with U.S. Intelligence Agencies, and you might understand why. They don't want Biden to know how bad this whole fiasco has become. They don't want the blame, cowards and criminals that they are.

Meanwhile ex-General and eternal-Conman Mike Flynn calls for martial law, which provides us with a perfect bookend to the entire, disastrous reign of the Tangerine Tyrant. This whole damn thing started four years ago this month with Jared Kushner setting up a secret backchannel to Moscow, while Flynn undermined the Obama effort to punish Moscow for interfering in the 2016 election by getting word to Kislyak and Putin that there would soon be a new sheriff in town, and that he'd be a creampuff when it came to defending the nation.  Maybe there was a piss-tape, or maybe not. Who knows? 

Maybe Trump did all this because he had hopes for a business deal in Russia, or maybe not. Who knows? Maybe this was all the work of kompromat, or maybe the whole damn lot of them working in this White House are just bloody morons, but four years ago this month, they collectively showed their tail to the Kremlin, and it's been right up to the hilt ever since.  

Now, four years later - four years of fawning obeisance, and unmonitored late-night phone calls between a KGB handler and his simp - we begin to see the enormity of the results: Russian penetration God-only-knows-how-far into our government agencies, our defense agencies, and our economy. I'm a dove and a half, but this level of calamitous disarmament in a deadly, dangerous world is criminal. It's absolutely criminal. 

Meanwhile, Republican Senators and White House apparatchiks chase the ghosts of a voting-fraud conspiracy theory that involves all Democrats in Christendom, the entire mainstream media, Fox News, the ghost of Hugo Chavez, Hunter Biden's Laptop, Chi-com Radicals, Republican Governors, thousands of American poll workers, fifty-seven state and federal judges, and all nine Justices on the Supreme fucking Court. 

But not Russia. Never, ever, ever Russia. The damage Donald Trump has done to this nation may never be clearly measured - and that fills me with patriotic rage. I don't know how it's going to happen, or who is going to get the great and holy pleasure of finally locking that asshole up and throwing away the key, but whatever punishment Trump faces for his crimes, will never be enough.  

And that's before tallying the dead from Covid. 35 days to go. 

Thank god I quit drinking, or I'd go broke off whiskey alone.”

I have a series of medical tests late this afternoon, so I won’t have a chance to post a recap of Sally Yates’ testimony. Her hearing is about to start now.

Three things:

1) NBC News broke the news this morning that three Obama officials have confirmed that, shortly after the election, President Obama warned Trump not to hire General Flynn, whom he had fired in 2014. And, of course, Trump had to fire Flynn three weeks after he hired him to be National Security Adviser because Flynn colluded with Russia–and Turkey–and lied to VP Pence about it.

2) Strongly urge you to read up on Sally Yates’ career if you haven’t already. She has a long, distinguished legal career prosecuting members of both parties. She’s highly esteemed by peers of all stripes. And Trump fired her in January from her job as Acting U.S. Attorney General because she refused to enforce his first travel ban Executive Order. Let’s note the 3rd Circuit separately ruled that Yates’ legal assessment was the correct one.

3) Yates is about to testify under oath now. In a stupid and venal attempt to deflect attention, this morning on Twitter, Trump both attacked Yates AND falsely blamed President Obama for hiring Flynn.

Let’s pay close attention. Yates has tremendous integrity and pertinent information. Today we learn what Yates knew about Flynn and Russia, what she relayed to Trump, and why she opted to get fired rather than enforce a travel ban she knew to be Unconstitutional.

Vladimir Putin ordered attempt to influence US election, declassified report says

Russian President Vladimir Putin personally directed an attempt to harm Hillary Clinton's chances of winning the 2016 U.S. presidential election, according to an intelligence report declassified and made public Friday.

The report, "Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections," noted that Moscow has for years attempted to meddle in American politics, but 2016 operations "demonstrated a significant escalation in directness, level of activity and scope of effort." Read more

Wow

“The batch of more than 3,000 Russian-bought ads that Facebook is preparing to turn over to Congress shows a deep understanding of social divides in American society, with some ads promoting African-American rights groups including Black Lives Matter and others suggesting that these same groups pose a rising political threat, say people familiar with the covert influence campaign.