Investigators believe a local contractor in California was the target of a hackers, but the systems accessed weren’t related the elections, U.S. officials said.
So, no. The only people interfering with who gets to vote with malicious intent are the various secretaries of state, largely GOP ones.
In reply to @Bozobub: No, this is not OK by me. I’m a Westphalian sovereignty kinda guy. But in the context of realpolitik, what the 'States are experiencing right now is what they’ve been up to for ages. And, like the rest of the planet, you have to grin and bear it, and factor into your considerations that things you read could be malicious manipulations by foreign interests (instead of malicious manipulations by domestic interests) or could not be. And you’ll never know. Because, face it, we don’t know if the Russians interfered materially. And we likely won’t know because anyone reporting on it is, de facto, an interested party and, to make matters better, one that has a record of lying with malice and forethought.
This is the world you built for the rest of us. Not fun actually living in it, is it?
In reply to @gracchus and @Nobby_Stiles regarding sockpuppets: I’ve said this ages ago and I’ll say it again: the accusation of sockpuppetry is a dangerous thing and especially close to poisoning the well. It is possible to be entirely pro-Russian on your own time. It’s possible to agree with Russian policy in some respects and not others, and it is possible to think poorly of American policy and think that, in comparison to it, Russian policy is often merely “utterly awful” as opposed to “unspeakably foul.” And it is just as easy to to accuse anyone holding any of these positions of being a sockpuppet and thus, explaining why they shouldn’t be listened to or engaged with.
In reply to @anon67050589 regarding vote supression
Let’s not forget how many millions of voters were kept from voting due to the various methods specifically designed to keep potential Democrats from the polls. How many hundreds of polling places where minorities live were closed after the absentee voting deadline had expired in those states?
My point exactly! That this election is a screwjob is of course, true. It’s been that way for ages. But I think it is mainly a domestic screwjob.
Putin will take the Baltics in the coming four years.
Bet you he won’t. He didn’t even take Eastern Ukraine despite having a very pro-Russian majority there with a powerful separatist movement that’s in de facto control of the area. And even what he took (Crimea, which is a rather special case, historically) he only did after the US backed a coup.
Putin ain’t nice, but he isn’t stupid, either, and he’s been entirely reactive so far.
It’s part of a plan to show the home audience that Western democracy is weak and that authoritarian ‘managed’ democracy is the best way forward.
Have you seen a single solitary shred of evidence that Putin even has an ideology, let alone even so much as a passing desire to spread it? Did you just take the talking points from the Cold War era and do a quick search-and-replace?
Putin’s media can now run stories portraying the American population as weak, divided and distrustful of their system whilst their leaders are corrupt and easily manipulated.
I keep an eye on a few Russian media outlets and I can tell you, they say mean things about America way less than American media say mean things about Russia. Do you have any evidence for all of this?
Meanwhile he’s pouring money into anti-EU, nationalist, xenophobic and outright fascist parties across Europe to forment anti-government, separatist sentiments to weaken opposition to Russian actions in Eastern Europe.
Evidence? I swear to all that’s holy you are rehashing the Global Communist Conspiracy stuff from the 1950s.
Put in has worked out how to make a culturally and ideologically bankrupt country
Neoliberal capitalism is ideologically bankrupt? I mean, yes, it is, but that’s an accusation that’s hardly unique to Russia.
Or did you forget they aren’t Communist anymore?
Nothing at all to do with the success of the banks in increasing inequality and the US in invading Iraq and so leading to a regional refugee crisis?
Goodness no. It’s all masterminded by Putin who’s so evil he has several white Persian cats to stroke at all times. /s
I’ve had it to my back teeth with defending Putin. I don’t like him I agree with precisely none of his politics, but with everyone really happy about reanimating the corpse of Joe McCarthy and putting it in charge of public discourse I have to say something.
I have friends in Russia some of which are and some of which aren’t Putin supporters and they all agree on what would improve relations with them to no end: “Please stop waving that gun in my face.” As far as I can work out, that’s all they want. Because having the missile shield (which is different from short-range ballistic missile launchers largely in marketing) right up to your borders is really scary.
