Adam Schiff's tweet is terrifying. I think we need UN observers for the midterms. Seriously.

[catbyte]

Link to tweet

News that Russian hackers targeted Claire McCaskill’s staff shortly after Trump called for her ouster is a chilling sign of Kremlin plans for midterms. As Dan Coats said, the warning lights are flashing red.

All Americans, of all parties, must denounce this, even if Trump won’t.
Sam Stein
✔
@samstein

Claire McCaskill was targetted by Russian hackers shortly after Trump encouraged folks to vote her out https://www.thedailybeast.com/russian-hackers-new-target-a-vulnerable-democratic-senator …

[Wwcd]

1. K & R Thank you for posting

[Haggis for Breakfast]

37. Right now, I am reading

"The Plot to Destroy Democracy" by Malcolm Nance, recognized internationally as an expert in counter-terrorism and national security. He lays out the Russian master plan, put into place by Putin, to rip this country apart and put an end to democracy in this country and Europe. To Putin, elections are child's play.

(Retired Senior Chief) Nance starts with a time line of summer 2015, and brings it right up to present day. It is chilling. I keep current with news, but much of this has been in the background, submerged in the muck of everything else going on right now. The chaos and confusion we are all experiencing is not accidental. Nance ties it all together, as it is all part of the plan, straight from Putin's own playbook. There is no coincidence(s) here. It is chilling.

I urge readers to pick up a copy of this book. Nance writes about things that Michael Hayden, John Brennan and James Clapper cannot put out there. I guarantee you will not look at anything the same after you read this.

Make NO mistake, we are under attack. And they are gearing up for the mid-terms. They've been prepping since the election in 2016.

[Grasswire2]

2. Absolutely

That's what troubled nations do to ensure election validity. Call in the U.N. Paper ballots, hand counted, and elections monitors.

[triron]

3. Why did the pukes go to Moscow?

[dalton99a]

4. Excellent question

[Bettie]

7. To make promises in exchange for

assistance. Most likely.

I do not believe that they have the good of our country in mind, they are all about maintaining power, which makes them richer every day.

[Takket]

8. Too dangerous to collude over email

[FakeNoose]

12. Why waste time on "little targets" like McCaskill

If they're going for broke on this, they should be trying to take down Schiff, Waters, Warren, Pelosi, Feinstein, Schumer, and the people who can do real damage.

Claire McCaskill isn't trying to hurt the GOP, she's not even sure she can get re-elected.

The GOP is going for broke, make no mistake. Their collusion is right out in the open now, they've got nothing to lose because they know they're going down anyway.

[mythology]

18. Because the Russian influence has limits

It's much easier to convince 1or 2 percent of people to vote one way or the other, than it is to change 15 percent.

Votes aren't being changed after being cast. Votes are being influenced prior to and election. But for most people, seeing an ad for Trump isn't going to change their vote. So the only way to have a useful impact is to target close elections.

[meadowlander]

19. Because McCaskill is in a swing District and the other Democrats you listed aren't.

They want to keep impeachable majorities out of the House and Senate so they are focused on protecting vulnerable Republican seats and attacking vulnerable Democrats.

[Rebl2]

36. No she's not in a swing district

She is in a state that went for Trump overwhelming. Not sure what you mean by a swing district by the way. She’s a Senator from the state of Missouri. Don’t believe senators are in districts. They serve the whole state.

[JI7]

20. this can't be a serious post

[AdamGG]

21. Claire McCaskill could possibly be the difference between 50 & 51 votes in the Senate

Democratic control of all Senate committees would be massive

[regnaD kciN]

31. Exactly...

...that seat is demographic “low-hanging fruit” for Republicans, and flipping it may well guarantee them continued control of the Senate (and, with it, two more years of being able to install whoever they want to SCOTUS…after all, RBG is certainly reaching the age where she might not make it to see another presidency).

Look at it this way: even if Russia has developed the ability to access every voting tabulator in America, and can change results anywhere at will, having something like a straight-up Republican landslide this November, or having the Democratic leadership lose in their deep-blue districts, would seem hard for most people to swallow as genuine, and might even make them wonder if the same had been done in 2016. Far better, from the Russian viewpoint, to only “tweak” the results in plausible ways, so that the Democrats make the predicted gains, but fall just a hair short of a legislative majority through a loss or two in swing districts where such a result would be completely believable.

[enid602]

29. Gallery

That's quite a Roges' Gallery. I would add Erik Prince and Tad Devine.

[DFW]

39. Because if they flip a race judged as a tossup

No one will see definite manipulation

If they flip a race where we are ahead 60-40 their manipulation will be obvious and thus call into question those races where they would otherwise get away with it

[sarcasmo]

22. The Moscow Eight received marching orders from Vlad.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

30. To meet in private and not be held to account.

Beyond the pale from a bunch of folks who have throttled Jane Fonda(?) for going to Hanoi during Vietnam.

[gratuitous]

5. Keep pushing

We need the media to get after and keep after this. Ordinary citizens can are no longer contact their elected officials directly, and can't expect a pertinent response if they do break through. We need the media to worry less about access and concern themselves more with the welfare of the country.

[SWBTATTReg]

6. We stand by in MO to support Claire M. Her website is listed FYI. Go Claire!

https://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/

[Progressive dog]

9. If we need the UN to monitor our elections.

we might as well not bother with elections. It sure would make Putin happy, though. Putin's Russia is a permanent member of the UN security council.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

32. And do what? Just accept status quo?

I think we pull out all the stops to insure fair and accurate elections. We'd do it for them. Probably why dt is brow beating them now to stir up folks about the U.N. Wait til election Day and armed "militia" types are "monitoring" the elections in certain precints and districts. They already passed the law where you can wear anything into the polls you want etc. That was sacrosanct to insure a feeling of safety. After all, we go to war w other countries to indure Democracy for them, we should have it here as well.
Why are we always "REACTING" instead of being pro-active? (Like insisting the tangelo NOT go to Helsinki to begin with...2 hours alone w putin...brrrr.)

[Progressive dog]

42. Status quo (democratic Constitutional government) has worked for over 200 years in USA

and we haven't needed Russian, Chinese, N Korean help to run our elections. We're the ones other countries turn to for help.
In fact, our problem now is having outsiders interfere in our elections.
You need to consult how elections are actually run in the USA. You seem to be confused about that.

[33taw]

10. Creat a paper audit trail. Data can be magically updated, paper cannot.

I am from Wisconsin and I only use paper ballots. When I request them - I am looked at like I don’t trust the 80 year old woman checking me in. I trust her, I don’t trust the electronic voting machines.

[RussBLib]

11. seems the GOP feels that allowing this hacking will never come back to bite them

the GOP has often been filled with total idiots (that reflect the populace)

[Scurrilous]

13. K&R

[diva77]

14. What would you have the UN observe? Cannot see what's going on inside voting machines,

central tabulators, and optical scanners. The only legitimately observable elections are those done with paper ballots, hand counted, ideally at the precinct level.

[Achilleaze]

15. I join with all decent Americans in denouncing the republican-russian attacks on US democracy

depicable

[FreepFryer]

16. +1. However, I was called a troll for pointing out how nice it would be to still have Al Franken...

As you say, this was a despicable Russian attack on our democracy and we should have been able to keep our priorities (defending the national security and ensuring the survival of US democracy) intact.

[mythology]

17. That would be useless

There is zero evidence that votes were changed. In fact the evidence of the recounts done in Wisconsin and Michigan make it clear that votes weren't changed.

The Russian influence was prior to the election. It was targeted ads on Facebook (and others), it was Twitter bots, it was in getting access to campaign plans. That is much harder to stop. And it literally can't be stopped on election day because by then the damage was already done. The influence campaign went on for months and months.

The point should be to stop it now. Social media needs to have better protections, the party and individual campaigns need better protections of their data and people need to be smart enough to verify information. But when John Podesta gives his password, all the protection protocols won't help. Phishing works, targeted phishing works better.

If you only focus on non-existent vote changing, you will only serve to prove no votes were changed. You would only be providing evidence that votes weren't changed.

But we also need to be aware that for all the Russian influence, Clinton was still pretty comfortably ahead until the second Comey announcement. If she didn't have the server, she almost certainly would be president today, because all the Russian efforts to that point pushed Trump to within 6 points both nationally and in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Based on the Russian efforts weren't sufficient to change the election alone. It would be wrong to ignore the self-inflicted wound given the evidence.

[BamaRefugee]

24. Zero evidence that votes were changed HAS BEEN RELEASED YET. fixed.

[DFW]

40. Zero OBVIOUS evidence

They didn't leave a signed note, but the statistical probability of the nearly identical Trump margins in all 3 states (WI, MI, PA) being legit is close to zero.

[DeminPennswoods]

23. At least Microsoft was on the ball and knew about

the attempted hacks. They set up a detour server that twarted the email phishing link.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

25. I agree. How do we make that happen?

Serious question.

[90-percent]

26. Gee, the last time

Gee, the last time the system was blinking read was the summer of 2001, and that turned out just swell for the United States.



-90% Jimmy

[dlk]

27. The GOP Will Never Denounce Cheating to Win -- It's Their "Secret Weapon"

[hay rick]

35. Yup.

[spanone]

28. THIS is what trump and putin talked about for two hours.

[Honeycombe8]

33. The Repubs are all in on this. It means they might win. Winning in order to destroy democracy.nt

[SergeStorms]

34. Don't hold your breath....

for any Republicans to care. They can only win by cheating.

[Rhiannon12866]

38. The Carter Center has a whole system in place for monitoring elections in third world countries

Sounds like we need it badly here...

[EndGOPPropaganda]

41. Great idea. Can we as citizens invite them???