CIA: Senate briefed in September on Russian efforts to deliver a Trump victory

[Tonitrus]

Use or lose doesn't expire until the end of the fiscal year. 

I should know...I'm sitting on about 20. 

[CountDeMoney]

Use or lose doesn't expire until the end of the fiscal year. 



*I should know...I'm sitting on about 20. 

Fuck off.

[Tonitrus]

I need a vacation. 

[CountDeMoney]

Christ

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/russian-hack-almost-brought-the-u-s-military-to-its-knees/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab6a&linkId=32446140

110 individuals own 35 percent of the wealth in Russia. It's time to make some zeros and commas disappear.

[Syt]

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/15/politics/trump-supporter-jack-kingston-lindsey-graham-russia/index.html

Donald Trump supporters in Moscow as sanctions fight heats up

(CNN)A Donald Trump supporter and former member of Congress is in Russia this week, as questions about the President-elect's policies toward Moscow roil his transition.

Former Georgia Rep. Jack Kingston spoke this week in the Russian capital with American business leaders in a closed-door session. Publicly, however, he suggested that Western sanctions on Russia over its aggression in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea could be lifted.

"Trump can look at sanctions. They've been in place long enough," Kingston said during an interview with NPR in Moscow. "Has the desired result been reached? He doesn't have to abide by the Obama foreign policy. That gives him a fresh start."

A spokeswoman for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Kingston's visit or remarks.

The sanctions resulted from a major push from US to coordinate with its European allies, who might see the move as an abandonment of cooperation with Europe. At the same time, the Europeans have been less enthusiastic about the economic restrictions because of their trade ties to Russia and would be unlikely to extend them if Trump no longer backs them.

"Among the many questions the businesses asked ... they had a number of questions, but one of the questions was 'What about sanctions?' to which I said 'Sanctions not something the administrations going to lead with at all,'" Kingston told CNN's Jake Tapper on "The Lead" Thursday. "The sanctions have been in place a while now. The administration should take a look and say, 'Are the results what we were looking for?' Brand new administration, it's a good time to revitalize."

Back in the US, Kingston's former colleagues in Congress are wrestling over how to respond to Russia's alleged interference in the presidential election -- with many, Republicans included, calling for additional sanctions due to US intelligence assessments of hacking of Democratic organizations.

One of the consistent messages of Trump's presidential campaign was a promised push for better relations with Russia, in particular its President Vladimir Putin.

In nominating ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson to lead the State Department, Trump again signaled his desire for a diplomatic thaw through the pursuit of shared economic and foreign policy goals. Tillerson, who did extensive business in Russia and was recommended to the transition by a group of Republican establishment foreign policy hands who do business with the oil giant, was awarded the Order of Friendship by Putin in 2013.

But Tillerson's nomination has set off alarm bells among some Senate Republicans. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room" Wednesday, "I can't imagine I would vote (to confirm) anybody that believes that we should not sanction Russia, given the fact that they did in fact interfere in our election."

"If they don't believe sanctions are appropriate, given what Putin has been doing all over the world, including in our backyard, then I don't think they have the judgment to be secretary of state," he added, "because if you don't go after Russia, you're inviting the other bad actors on the planet to come after you."

On Thursday, Graham's Democratic colleague, Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, tweeted that she was "down" with his tweeted pledge to put "crippling sanctions against Russia" on Trump's White House desk.

Controversial Trump loyalist Carter Page, who has spoken positively about the Tillerson nomination and opposes sanctions, also raised eyebrows recently when he turned up in Moscow and gave a presentation and news conference at the Russian state news outlet Sputnik.

"If you look at where the current state of US-Russia relations is, it's much more toxic and much more dangerous and there's a lot more work that needs to be done to overcome this," Page said, before suggesting reports on US intelligence assessments about Russian hacking during the campaign "almost borders on the 'fake news' category."

Asked by a reporter if he believed there was a deliberate US government attempt to deceive the American public about the source of the hacks, Page said it is "very easy to make it look like it was country X, in this case, Russia, that did this."

"I've talked with various IT experts that have suggested that (intentional US misdirection) could very well be a serious possibility," he added, "and these guys are pros to make certain paths that can mislead and again we've seen many mistakes from an intelligence standpoint previously."

On Thursday, Trump still publicly questioned whether Russia was involved in hacking American politicians, an assertion uniformly supported by the US Intelligence community.

"If Russia, or some other entity, was hacking, why did the White House wait so long to act? Why did they only complain after Hillary lost?" Trump tweeted.

[FunkMonk]

Putin is going to get away with all this, isn't he? 

"Mmmmmmmmm, yes, shit in my cereal, boss! Yes! It's delicious, thank you sir! "

[jimmy olsen]

Looks like Graham won't be voting for Tillerson.

http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2016/Pres/Maps/Dec16.html#item-3

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has said he might vote against confirmation of Rex Tillerson as secretary of state, but gave Tillerson directions on how to get his vote. First, when asked if he believes the Russians interfered with the election, the correct answer is: "Yes." Second, when asked if he supports additional sanctions on Russia as a result of the hacking, the correct answer is again: "Yes." If Tillerson passes this simple test, he might get Graham's vote when his confirmation comes to the floor of the Senate. Graham is not on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, so he won't be able to ask the questions himself, but no doubt one of the other members, possibly a Democrat, would be willing to ask them for him.

Yesterday, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said he is open to supporting Tillerson. If he does, that makes the confirmation process easier, since then four Republicans would have to defect to defeat Tillerson. (V)

[CountDeMoney]

Putin is going to get away with all this, isn't he? 

It's like watching half a shitty international villain movie; we don't even get to see the INT: KREMLIN - NIGHT scenes, either.   

[Syt]

Besides, it was the good kind of hacking, because:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/809717035353722880

Are we talking about the same cyberattack where it was revealed that head of the DNC illegally gave Hillary the questions to the debate?

Putin will probably commended by Trump in the near future for going above and beyond the call of duty to prevent the US presidency to be hijacked by Crooked Hillary.

[CountDeMoney]

Compared to the compromising material the Russians have on Trump from his visits to Moscow for his little beauty pageants, little debate cheat sheets are baby shit.

Putin's years' long cultivation of Trump as their Joe is going to go down in history as they greatest example of tradecraft ever.  Le Carre' couldn't ejaculate a better plot.

[The Minsky Moment]

If this had been written as fiction c 2014 no one would have believed the premise would be plausible.

[DGuller]

If this had been written as fiction c 2014 no one would have believed the premise would be plausible.

I saw the possibility, there were a lot of similarities that could be observed even back then between American right and Putin right.  Even the propaganda methods were very similar for many years now.

What completely caught me by surprise is the total lack of patriotic backlash against Putin's efforts.  It's the most stable of constants in politics:  external interference in domestic politics causes people to unite.  I fear the mindset in our country is one that is present when the civil war is brewing.

[PJL]

I suspect what is happening is that Dixiecrats who realised in the 1980s & 90s that the Democratic Party no longer represented their views and moved to the Republican Party, are now realising Russia under Putin is not the USSR anymore, and view it as another conservative & Christian country that shares many of their views, and therefore are more likely to be sympathetic to them and their allies.

[Valmy]

I suspect what is happening is that Dixiecrats who realised in the 1980s & 90s that the Democratic Party no longer represented their views and moved to the Republican Party, are now realising Russia under Putin is not the USSR anymore, and view it as another conservative & Christian country that shares many of their views, and therefore are more likely to be sympathetic to them and their allies.

I think they just realized that Obama doesn't like Putin or Russia so therefore they should like both.

[Berkut]

I think it is pretty simple.

We've had 20 years of radical hate radio telling people that the left is trying to destroy America and people like Obama are secret Muslims and Hillary murders people and the media that is NOT funking crazy bonkers is involved in a conspiracy to deceive them in a concentrated effort to destroy them and their country.

If you buy into all that, then it makes perfect sense to find any possible ally to assist in defeating this insidious treachery from inside the country. Even Putin is preferable to Clinton.

We see this playing out right in front of us. The supposed "I didn't vote for him" crowd is not willing to actually denounce what is happening. Instead it is all exaggeration and hysteria. Because if you denounce it, you have to admit that you were fooled by it.

There isn't any space left to inhabit where you can both support Trump AND recognize that Putin is a real danger to the US. And if you are going to stop supporting Trump on the basis of something like evidence that Russia took a hand in getting him elected, how do you do that without admitting you were a fucking moron all along since everyone NOT supporting Trump was saying exactly that?