[A]nyone in Washington who once knew a skeleton is now looking over his shoulder. “As journalists and political operators pored over the 20,000 emails leaked from the servers of the Democratic National Convention, one Democratic staffer frantically searched for his name. It was only when he failed to find it, that he began to fear for the worst.” The suspense was excruciating.[…]
On the eve of Hillary’s coronation her courtiers are suddenly waking up to the fact that she cannot protect them. The shock may be intentional. If Putin was indeed behind the hacking he is only doing what underdogs through history have done to even the odds. Unable to match the foe in weight, he went for the king, or in this case the queen. Recall how in ancient Gaugamela, the outnumbered Alexander staked everything on a thrust at Darius.
Darius fled in fear. When the mass of the Persian army saw this, they scattered in dismay. By demonstrating the impotence of Darius, Alexander broke the Persian monarch’s aura and with it his majesty. Alexander knew that for a king to rule he must be regarded as more than mortal by the masses. Once the king is humiliated and put to flight he becomes psychologically no better than his subjects and the greater part of his power vanishes.
By striking at Hillary’s aura the Russian may be attempting the same thing. Democratic voters looked up to her to protect and defend the nation because that’s what presidents do. By hacking Hillary and humiliating her Putin has sent the message that she cannot even defend herself — and what’s the use of a president who can’t defend herself?
(updated with better link)
Democrats have an innate ability to have no clue what they are saying…
1. doesn’t matter who released them
2. if Putin hacked the DNC….he hacked Hillary’s bathroom closet
The best part of Wretchard’s essay (read the entire thing at Pajamas Media) was the line from the DNC staffer, relieved, then suddenly horrified that his own e-mails were NOT among those leaked.
So, just what was contained in those missing e-mails that would cause such a reaction? Curious minds would like to know.
Dave, do you have a link for that?….can’t find it…thanks
What is Putin’s endgame. Why does he want to bring down Hillary and not Trump? Surely the Republicans have just as much dirt and are as easily hacked. There is far more to this than is immediately apparent on the surface. The big question is: Where does the money lead? What’s in it for the Russians?
Why?
Putin craves power. He’ll be able to grab far more power with another socialist in power. He’s expanded his reach and firmed his grip on power after 8 years of a socialist american president. 4 more years or that?
Weakening her strengthens any credible threat to his power.
Or does he crave a worthy foe?
Drip, drip. It is almost acting as a vaccine protecting biliary from the death blow of a high fever. “What difference does it make now?” Has become her slogan and her followers mantra. She has been chosen and she is being rammed down our throats.
This afternoon I will encounter one of her most rabid followers, an intelligent, compasisionate, and besotted woman. She will be even more firmly loyal and full of talking points.
Looks like the link was updated. Thanks Kate!
Why would Putin go after biliary? This is a man who poses without a shirt doing manly things. Besides being a world leader he is a rock star sex symbol in his own mind. She called out his election as being dishonest and stollen. He has been reading her emails for years and enjoying it and waiting for just the right moment. Yeah, he is going to smack her down. If he was totally old school and not so in to himself he would not have released anything, he would just keep listening so he could position himself one step ahead of her. He just couldn’t resist it.
Dave, my understanding is that Trump does not use emails…and I assume his staff do not as well.
He and his campaign may be much more difficult for anyone to “hack”.
This is “conspiracy theory” writ large. The interesting aspect is that the Democrat establishment itself is going all tinfoil-hat over it. That’s because the best defence in always a good offence: rather than address what those WikiLeaks emails reveal, let’s try to use a conspiracy theory to deflect attention towards – Donald Trump!
As for Putin, I think we are seriously “over-Machiavellianizing” that man. He is president of Russia and acts in Russia’s national interests.* If you think the US has problems, Russia is full of far more woes than Americans dare to imagine. The Russians are putting on a considerable amount of Potemkin-village stuff just for world show (and, in terms of global optics, it’s working!).
Forget the Trump-Putin “bromance” nonsense. From where I sit, if anything, a Clinton administration would be far more advantageous to Russian interests than a Trump one. I strongly suspect Moscow views Clinton as the better option for them: a tired, predictable, stodgy and uninspired place-holder who (as the line goes) would decompose in the White House with Bill for the next eight years. Don’t forget: she’s the “Reset Button Lady” in Russian eyes, i.e. a stumble-bum. Trump, on the other hand, is utterly unpredictable. If I were Putin, I wouldn’t want that wild card in the White House.
* To me, Americans always seem to get all hurt when leaders of other countries don’t put US national interests ahead of their own. Well, duh.
The Washington Post had an article July 25, 2016 about some alarming poll results for Hillary:
“68 percent say Clinton isn’t honest and trustworthy – That’s according to the CNN poll, and it’s her worst number on-record. It’s also up from 65 percent earlier this month and 59 percent in May. The 30 percent who see Clinton as honest and trustworthy is now well shy of the number who say the same of Trump: 43 percent.
You heard that right: Trump — he of the many, many Pinocchios — now has a large lead on Clinton when it comes to honesty and trustworthiness. The CBS poll, for what it’s worth, has a similar number saying Clinton is dishonest: 67 percent.”
Ya gotta love it!
Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/pb/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/25/4-brutal-poll-numbers-that-greet-hillary-clinton-at-the-democratic-national-convention/?outputType=accessibility&nid=menu_nav_accessibilityforscreenreader
Only the DNC has the right to interfere with American elections.
The hack could have been done by anyone of 7 Billion people whom despise Mrs. Clinton.
The triple password was probably HRC, which is now changed to -H.
And we all thought the Democrats were for open firewalls.
The right just can’t seem to embrace Assange.
Assange is probably one of the last real journalists on the planet.
Folk seem to prefer to think Blofelt, er, Putin, did it, while cackling evilly and petting his white cat.
Strangely I’ve noticed no mention of this in the MSM. Nor have I seen anything about Sanders being booed when he trashed Trump. (Mind you, I don’t pay overmuch attention to the MSM.) Instead they are gushing in their praise of a fantastic convention.
People have asked what Putin hopes to achieve; I think I’ve got it. It is simple cost benefit. He has paid Clinton off in the past (everyone has), knows she’s for sale. Putin has simply decided continuing to pay her for what he wants is no longer worth it. So for him, it is just the next batter’s turn. He will go thru his playbook with a new player, and see how it shakes out.
The worst thing for Clinton isn’t people knowing all her sins; it’s people knowing she can no longer deliver when she’s paid off. Her money tree is dead!
“The right just can’t seem to embrace Assange.
Assange is probably one of the last real journalists on the planet.”
He is no such thing.
He is a rather creepy, self-serving fantasist hiding in someone’s embassy to avoid a Swedish sexual abuse investigation.
To summarize; this Putin stuff, if accurate, means the Clinton money tree is dead. Worldwide, people have realised that paying a Clinton will no longer buy you what you want. So they are moving on.
Putin is street smart, many in here ain’t, he knows that if elected the Cow could easily feel cornered, and Russia’s military is no match for that of the USA. And as one commenter, at PJM, note, the Cow is a liberal hawk. She did push for Kaddaffies down fall, but she is no liberal. Liberalism is an ideology, and she is simple an opportunist.
LOL.
“… a Swedish sexual abuse investigation”
That’s a good one! Keep it up!
Vlad could have been double crossed in the past by the Klintons. Perhaps by Bill, back in the day, when Vlad was just a KGB operative.
Payback is a beatch
Does anyone remember when Romney declared that Russia was a great global threat and people laughed at his so-called anachronistic views?
Et tu, Hillary?
It wouldn’t surprise if Putin DID have a hand in this.
If Trump were to exercise his campaign promises, he may be no more a threat than Clinton (RE: paying for defense). His anti-NATO comments may have sent the right signal to Putin.
“and Russia’s military is no match for that of the USA”
Conventional – no. Nuclear – yes. There used to be a doctrine called M.A.D. and the concept still very much holds. The Russians still know how to play that game, but in the West it went the way of Kissinger.
“…with campaign officials suggesting that the Kremlin was releasing the documents to damage Clinton’s candidacy…”
suggesting?
Hi all, been reading stories here and comments for sometime, now my own debut…
Question: was it really the Russians? I don’t know much about hacking, but if suspicions are raised in the direction of the Russians because Russian time stamps and Russian coding were found… well are Russian hackers so dumb as to leave behind such clues? Or is it impossible to do such hacking without leaving behind such clues?
NATO.
The ones who are currently importing muzz as fast as they cam? The ones who handed Libya and Kosovo to Jihadists? The ones who are trying to hand Syria to the Jihadists? THAT NATO?
Hi All, I’ve been reading stories here and commenting for some time, now my comment debut…
Was it really Russians that did the hacking? I mean, if suspicions were raised because they found Russian time stamps and Russian coding, well are the Russian hackers so dumb as to leave behind such obvious clues? Or are such traces inevitable when you do such a hack job?
Pssssssssst Russian hackers…if by chance you have e-mails connecting the Democrats with the election of our care bear Prime Minister in Canada and the DNC’s, sh*ts and giggles meddling, in another sovereign country’s (Canada) democracy could you release them? Thanks comrades.
One could imagine Trump and Putin meeting after the US election. Trump tells Putin he wants Russia out of Ukraine. Putin tells Trump he wants the US to recognize Russia’s right to the Crimea. Done and done. Trump and Putin then start work on the bigger problem of how to get rid of terrorism without having to consult the useless NATO countries that include Canada.
One could also imagine that the price of oil was reduced and is being kept low mainly to hurt Russia. There are only really 2 countries that need to be involved in order to do this, USA and Saudi Arabia, both countries continuing to pump enormous volumes of oil at these low prices. A high level agreement that transfers Saudi oil money into the pockets of a few American politicians in return for Saudi protection would seriously hurt the Russian economy and damage Putin’s reputation at home.
Hillary wouldn’t have to be smart enough to think of something like that. She would only have to be greedy enough to agree.
Trump says what he thinks and he is a bad guy. Hilary and the democrats hide what really think and when people find out the hackers are the bad guys. Guess what – Hilary and the democrats are dammed ugly when they have no clothes !
Does Putin prefer Trump or simply doesn’t like or trust Hillary, given Obama’s sabre rattling around the Baltic brigade?
Hint:
“Russia will take retaliatory measures if NATO deploys more battalions in Poland and the Baltic states and will reinforce its western and southern flanks with new divisions, officials said. Andrei Kelin, a department head at Russia’s Foreign Ministry, said on Wednesday that the proposed NATO deployment spoken of by various officials was a source of concern for Moscow.”
Russia has scrambled jets to intercept United States reconnaissance planes in recent weeks and made simulated attack passes near a US warship in the Baltic Sea. US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said on Monday that NATO was weighing up rotating four battalions of troops through eastern member states amid rising tension in the Baltic.”
Apres Crimea, barn door, meet horse’s ass. Hillary gets to deflate for four months via the slow leaks of Putin and his crew, as her arrogance boxes her in.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/05/russia-hit-nato-east-europe-expansion-plan-160504175351330.html
yah I know, but USA has enough nukes to kill160million ruskies twice, but the ruskies have only enough nukes to kill 320 million muricans one and a half times!!
Do you really think putins wants a nuke shoved up his A$$. Do you also know that puteen is conceivable the riches man in the world? Soooo, nukes are off the table, if the opposition has ballz, cuz puteen wants to live, and even if he survived a nuke exchange, there would be no living left!!!
Nukes are never off the table.
“That’s a good one! Keep it up!”
Assange is dodging a Swedish rape investigation. To void an entirely legal extradition process to Sweden regarding that matter, he’s camping out in the Ecuadorian Embassy.
The whole “Sweden will then extradite him to the US” is a fantasy of his own making. If the Americans really were going to attempt such a ludicrous thing, it wouldn’t be from Sweden, a neutral country with no well established ties to the US. No, a better candidate country for extradition would be the one where Assange is now: the UK, a close intelligence-sharing ally of the US.
He should go back to Sweden and face the music – but that would be too mundane for his al-consuming ego. In my estimation, he might end up serving a short, comfortable sentence in a Swedish prison but he might even just end up going free.
Whatever might happen, extradition to the US is utter nonsense. The US cannot extend its security and espionage laws outside US writ to foreign nationals resident in other countries.
Come now people.. it is simple jealousy… Hillary has said Bill is in charge of JOBS…Putin knows that Bill only knows about B@@@ Jobs & He wants some too.
Mike, nope are on the table, and won’t leave the table, and Russians (puteen) and americans (klintons, trump, jug ears) don’t want to get blowed up, now some ISIS types don’t mind getting blowed up. You need to be able to understand the players, they are all self centered, don’t want to die, so USA vs Russian, nuke are only for saber rattling. The nuke powers will only use them on some one who can NOT retaliate in kind.
I agree, Steve from Rockwood. I do not believe that Vladimir Putin and Russia are “the” threat. In fact I think that Vladimir is a realist, with whom the Donald could work. I also think that the NATO military buildup is a straw dog, albeit a very dangerous one, supported by dickheads like Trudeau, when in fact the REAL threats are terrorism, political correctness, stupid millennials who only know how to take selfies and protest against you-name-it, and the prospect of eventually getting out-breeded by immigrating muslims to a degree that our political systems are taken over. And believe it, when that happens, slavery for the kaffir is not far behind.
The whole supposed involvement of Putin is a red (well it was until they adopted a tricolour flag) herring designed to terrify Americans raised on the Evil Soviet Menace. Wikileaks has hackers around the globe and are probably quite happy to see the focus on Russia instead of some Swahili in a basement (do they have basements there?).
Best summary of the whole discussion. Russia is not the biggest threat, it’s radical Islam. There are more similarities than differences between North Americans and Russians than any other two cultures in the world. Of course we should be working together to defeat our common enemy. Trump and Putin working together could probably do it, and the Chinese and Indians don’t like radical Islam either.
Do you mean the NATO that sees troops in Latvia as “aggression”?
I know it sounds weird … but just maybe, Putin would just like to play with others that say what they mean and aren’t having their strings pulled by others.
A handshake means as much as it did before – for people of honor.
BTW: Honor doesn’t mean disagreement.
I trust Putin to do what he says to do … not saying I agree with it … but he will do what he says he is going to do.
Our PM (read his liberal puppet masters) moved us from a voice, to completely irrelevant.