Is it wise to indicate that the DNC email hack implies Russian helping Trump from the Clinton Campaign?

Tom McCarthy

Author of the website "Fear in Philosophy", Read more Trump tweets than I should

88w ago

The Clinton campaign is clearly banking on the hope that since Russia and Putin are seen as “bad guys” by most Americans, associating Trump with Russian hackers will make him look bad too.

But here is the flip side: Hillary and the Democrats have egg on their face after this hack, and the public might perceive this as Russia outsmarting the Dems. President Obama has been criticized for looking weak compared to Putin, and conservatives want some one who can assert American interests against Russians. So, it is possible that Trump will actually benefit from this association with Putin. In fact, he has been boasting about his comradary with Putin on Twitter recently.

Surely, Hillary’s campaign has weighed both sides and decided associating Trump with Putin is the better course of action.

Check my blog Fear in Philosophy for more on this type of analysis Fear in Philosophy

Lee Thé

Just 50 years of keeping abreast of events through a strongly empirical lens.

88w ago

Trump’s statements about foreign policy—especially as regards Europe—line up perfectly with Putin’s game plan.

Putin wants to sow discord between NATO members and if possible destroy NATO. Check.

Putin wants to damage America, which he continues to regard as his biggest enemy. Remember, he is a child of the USSR and the Cold War. He hasn’t changed his outlook, and in fact is a revanchist. Big time.

Over 100 Republican foreign policy experts signed an open letter in March stating that they will not be voting for Trump because they regard him as a serious danger to America’s foreign relations, because he doesn’t know what he’s doing, isn’t learning what he needs to know, obviously believes his intuition trumps (so to speak) the advice of the experts, and his wild pronouncements have already alarmed our friends—thus playing into Putin’s hands.

And Trump has praised Putin—he-man to he-man—which flatters Putin’s vanity, and if you’ve seen Putin’s antics for the Russian people you’ll see that he has a serious case of Short Guy Syndrome.

Conversely, Clinton earned Putin’s enmity—for which he has a looong memory—by dissing him for his antidemocratic actions half a decade ago.

Also, Putin knows that Clinton leading America would be disadvantageous to Russia’s plans, because she isn’t a cowboy and would work hard to forge coalitions against Russian imperialism. Trump would go it alone, as he’s made clear already.

Not to mention the fact that Trump’s chief of staff was an advisor to Putin’s Ukranian puppet President before the Orange Revoluton there.

And the Russian government has a long history of using cyberwar against its foes. Ask the Estonians and the Georgians. Not to mention the Russian government’s ties with criminal hacker organizations. Everyone in cybersecurity agrees that Russia has the motive, means, and opportunity to carry out cyber attacks on its perceived foes.

And while it’s hard to prove who did what online, this leak has Russian fingerprints all over it. Anyone with ten minutes and Google can see the details.

It would help Putin’s plans to get Trump elected. It would harm them if Clinton wins.

And Putin has no compunctions about interfering in other countries’ elections. I shouldn’t have to even say this.

Mac Gander

remembers history

88w ago

The short answer is no. Even if the evidence trail leads to that association, it seems likely to be impossible to prove, and in any case seems highly unlikely that the Trump campaign is well-enough organized to pull off a conspiracy of that magnitude.

I think the wise course for the Democratic campaign is to let the press work the story and stay quiet about it on the campaign trail. There is no value in trying to get ahead of the story, which is juicy enough to keep reporters working on it for months to come.

According to what I have seen, the infiltration of the DNC server occurred at a time when it was certainly not clear that Trump would be the nominee. It seems more like an instance of the constant but somewhat casual hacking that goes on all the time between the great powers.

This New York Times piece lays the story out fairly well: As Democrats Gather, a Russian Subplot Raises Intrigue

Instead of trying to draw a straight line between the Trump campaign and Putin’s revanchist Russia, it would make sense instead simply to enumerate these facts:

The hacking was conducted by a Russian agency, and then a second agency became involved—the link between the two is unclear.

Putin and Trump are close, and have made statements of mutual admiration. Trump recently indicated that he might disavow American commitments to its NATO allies the Baltic states, which were occupied by Russia during the Soviet period.

In essence, Trump said that Latvia and Estonia would need to pay protection if they wanted NATO support, much the same way a guy comes into a dry-cleaner’s shop in Jersey City and suggests that they should buy insurance.

It is clear that cyber-war is already well underway, and that the Russians had the intention of gathering information for some purpose.

Trump’s main adviser and campaign manager was previously a close adviser to the Russian-backed premier of The Ukraine, which is where the new Cold War truly broke out.

To make accusations about the Trump campaign is essentially to argue that he is the new Manchurian Candidate. Maybe he is, but I don’t see it and I wouldn’t claim it.

The fact that Putin wants Trump to be president should give us all pause. It is clear that his government engineered and authorized the leak, and the timing was no coincidence. It was intentional, on behalf of Trump.

Trump talks tough, but the fact that our most dangerous opponent on the world stage wants him to be president should certainly give one pause before voting for him.

Karan Res

Trump Campaign Insider...

88w ago

Russian Hackers, Chinese state hackers are hacking highly classified national security files and email since 2009, they already hacked large number of CIA secret files and Defense documents like 5th generation fighter plane F22 design and avionics and now Chinese using this technologies in their 5th generation plane j-20.

Foreign hackers even hacked personal emails of Jhon Kerry and former secretary of states, now democratic nominee Hilary Clinton, how embarrassing for Superpower country like USA.

Such malicious propaganda by liberal leftist biased media is very disgraceful to the nation and American people. Donald Trump and Republican party nothing to do with such mess created by impotent cyber security policies of Obama Government.

Who is going to believe the corrupted biased media, for still not asking any single question about +30,000 emails, desperate cover-up conspiracy theory by DNC and cancerous habit of dragging Trump everywhere.

Really Trump is responsible for all of this, Trump is not even in picture of Clinton era 2009,2010,2010,2011,2012.

American Public is not fool. They knew everything.

Judy Klass

Truman Scholar, D.Phil Political Science/Latin American Studies, bookish wonk

88w ago

Experts in different agencies, with different areas of expertise, agree that the hacking was done by Russians. Putin likes Trump and Trump likes Putin; Trump’s recent remarks about abandoning our NATO allies are a kind of invitation to Putin to gobble up Eastern European neighbors as he wants to — an indication that a “President Trump” would not stand in his way. These things are plain for all to see. Whether Putin personally authorized the hack — no one knows for sure and no one has said for sure that that is the case.

Yona J. Hilderband

Watched almost every moment!

88w ago

I don’t think it’s ever wise to jump on a conspiracy bandwagon without more evidence. That said, I think it is certainly possible that the Putin regime might find it in their own self-interests to put a thumb on the scales of this election. One thing they do not want in the White House is a person of strength, and would much rather have a thin-skinned cry-baby like Trump because he will prove easier to manipulate.

Anthony Baca

88w ago

It is not wise or accurate. The hack happened over a year ago long before Trump announced. Who knows why Wikileaks released it. I doubt Assange is a Trump supporter and i also doubt he is a Hillary supporter. I think anything to cause chaos is on their agenda. IMO.