Donald Fires FBI Director who's investigating Russian Election Hacking

[DutchJazzer]

I hope we don't consider another celebrity for a good long time. I have no idea why people would consider celebrity a qualification for POTUS. I don't care how smart a person is.

Sent from my SM-J700P using JazzFanz mobile app

I agree 100%


it's like omg oprah will run i will totally vote for her. but nobody is saying i should hear her policies before making a decision.

 

[LogGrad98]

I hope we don't consider another celebrity for a good long time. I have no idea why people would consider celebrity a qualification for POTUS. I don't care how smart a person is.

Sent from my SM-J700P using JazzFanz mobile app

People for some reason equate liking a celebrity with that celebrity being perfect. They attribute all kinds of false qualities to a celebrity because a celebrity's opinion gets more press than any "ordinary" folks so when that celebrity spouts talking points a person agrees with they automatically (confirmation bias) believe that celebrity must have all the answers. It is a vicious circle and will likely lead to more celebrities in the public sphere.

Some celebrities can make it work (Franken, Bono, etc.) but the vast majority don't have the chops to hang in the political arena without pulling something like Trump has done (failing miserably), but unfortunately they DO have the support to get there. Scary as hell really.

 

[Stoked]

A small twisted part of me wants the Rock to run. that voice says "At this point burn it all down."

 

[DutchJazzer]

also notice how their have been 6 special elections. the media before the elections dubs them as referendum on trump! well guess what? every single one has been one by republicans. unless that streak is broken today.


so thinking trump has no support and all these made up polls. well guess what thriller et al, you guys are wrong


edit: and yes: R's one another special election in georige. the most expensive election ever by ossof!


hahahaha

 

[Red]

A look at the team Special Council Mueller is putting together provides hints as to the directions his investigation will take:

https://www.wired.com/story/robert-mueller-special-counsel-investigation-team/

Including his most recent hire:

"Also, while the Special Counsel’s office has yet to make any formal announcements about Mueller’s team, it appears he has recruited an experienced Justice Department trial attorney, Lisa Page, a little-known figure outside the halls of Main Justice but one whose résumé boasts intriguing hints about where Mueller’s Russia investigation might lead. Page has deep experience with money laundering and organized crime cases, including investigations where she’s partnered with an FBI task force in Budapest, Hungary, that focuses on eastern European organized crime. That Budapest task force helped put together the still-unfolding money laundering case against Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash, a one-time business partner of Manafort."

Also of some interest, my own US senator, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, has been suggesting since last month that Michael Flynn has already been cooperating with the FBI. He repeated that conclusion a couple of days ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ltzkhQId7c

 

[JazzGal]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/homeland-security-official-russian-government-actors-potentially-tried-to-hack-election-systems-in-21-states/ar-BBCZGYC?ocid=spartanntp

People connected to the Russian government tried to hack election-related computer systems in 21 states, a Department of Homeland Security official testified Wednesday.

Samuel Liles, the Department of Homeland Security’s acting director of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis Cyber Division, said vote tallying mechanisms were unaffected, and the hackers appeared to be scanning for vulnerabilities — which Liles likened to walking down the street and looking at homes to see who might be inside.

But hackers successfully exploited a “small number” of networks, Liles said, likening the act to making it through a home’s front door.

Liles was testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is investigating Russia’s efforts to meddle in the 2016 presidential election, and his remarks add some clarity to the breadth of the Kremlin’s cyber mischief. Officials in Arizona and Illinois had previously confirmed that hackers targeted their voter registration system, though news reports suggested the Russian effort was much broader.*

Bloomberg reported earlier this month that Russian hackers “hit” systems in 39 states, and The Intercept, citing a classified intelligence document, reported that Russian military intelligence “executed a cyberattack on at least one U.S. voting software supplier and sent spear-phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials just days before last November’s presidential election.”

In a separate hearing before the House Intelligence Committee Tuesday, former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson testified that Russia’s meddling was “unprecedented, the scale and the scope of what we saw them doing.” The testimony came a day after White House press secretary Sean Spicer said at a briefing he did not know whether President Trump believes Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

In addition to scanning voting systems for vulnerabilities, U.S. intelligence committees have said Russian hackers hacked and engineered the release of emails from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.
“In retrospect, it would have been easy for me to say I should have brought a sleeping bag and camped out in front of the DNC in the late summer,” Johnson testified. He said the severity of Russia’s efforts convinced him to sign onto an Oct. 7 statement publicly blaming the Kremlin for what had happened, even though doing so might be perceived as “taking sides” or “challenging the integrity of the election itself.”

“My view is that we needed to do it and we needed to do it well before the election to inform American voters of what we saw,” Johnson said. He added: “I think the larger issue is it did not get the public attention that it should have, because the same day the press was focused on the release of the Access Hollywood video.” That video showed Trump bragging about kissing and groping women.

Officials declined to say which 21 states were targeted, or identify those which actually had data — such as voter registration lists — removed from their systems. Jeanette Manfra, the acting deputy undersecretary for cybersecurity and communications, said she could not do so because it was important to protect the confidentiality of those victimized.
FBI Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Bill Priestap testified Wednesday that Russians also pushed false news reports and propaganda online, using amplifiers to spread their message. He said Russia has for years tried to influence U.S. elections, but the “scale” and “aggressiveness” of its efforts in 2016 made the attempts more significant.

“The Internet has allowed Russia to do so much more today than they’ve ever been able to do in the past,” Priestap said. He said Russia’s goal was to “sow discord” in the United States and to “denigrate” Clinton and help Trump.

Johnson suggested that in the aftermath of the hacking, the federal government should “encourage a uniform set of minimum standards for cybersecurity when it comes to state elections system and voter registration databases.”
But he acknowledged doing so might be a heavy lift, given that state election officials are naturally suspicious of what he called a “federal takeover” of their election practices.

“State election officials are very sensitive about what they perceive to be federal intrusion into their process,” Johnson said, noting that he often encountered officials pushing back and arguing that “it’s our process, our responsibility.”

 

[moevillini]

So I heard earlier on the radio that they traced some of these shenanigans to the Netherlands - I need to see if I can find a link with that info. Perhaps our buddy Dutch has been busier than we realize.


edit: here we go

...The FBI has not ruled out the possibility that Russian hackers may have been involved in the intrusion. According to an August 2016 FBI document, the FBI found seven suspicious IP addresses during its early investigation, some of which traced back to the Netherlands.

The Netherlands IP addresses in turn traced back to a server called King Servers, which Hastings said often has been used by two Russian hacking groups, Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear. Hastings added that King Servers also has IP addresses in Bulgaria and Russia, and the two Russian hacking groups operate on all three servers....

http://www.govtech.com/security/Illinois-Voter-Registration-Database-Hackers-Hone-in-on-Galesburg-Residents.html

 

[DutchJazzer]

So I heard earlier on the radio that they traced some of these shenanigans to the Netherlands - I need to see if I can find a link with that info. Perhaps our buddy Dutch has been busier than we realize.


edit: here we go



http://www.govtech.com/security/Illinois-Voter-Registration-Database-Hackers-Hone-in-on-Galesburg-Residents.html

at least being called a russian is better than being called: racist, bigot, homophobe and sexist!

problem is it might land me in jail!

 

[DutchJazzer]

I love how people alwayys rbing up polls and aproval ratings, but fail to see donald filling up STADIUMS.

he just filled a stadium in Iowa!

 

[Stoked]

I love how people alwayys rbing up polls and aproval ratings, but fail to see donald filling up STADIUMS.

he just filled a stadium in Iowa!

Those are not mutually exclusive dutch.

Donald has roughly a 36% approval rating. In a country with 330,000,000 million people that is still over 110,000,000 million people.

Doesn't make it a majority lol.

 

[Harambe]

I love how people alwayys rbing up polls and aproval ratings, but fail to see donald filling up STADIUMS.

he just filled a stadium in Iowa!

I'll admit...


That the red media did a fantastic job of making you think they filled a stadium. But reality always seeps out.

https://s3.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20170622&t=2&i=1190028382&w=640&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&sq=&r=LYNXMPED5L03M

 

[colton]

In other news, Trump says he did not make tapes of the Comey conversations. Big surprise.