If DU had not been hacked on Election Day....

[Coventina]

and we all could have been exchanging info and keeping our ears and eyes open together....

I'm just wondering, what with all the new stuff that's been coming out about Putin's interference, etc. etc.

I just wonder....might things have been different?

Why was it so important that DU be down that day? And then, the next few weeks? While stuff was still in turmoil, we could not come together (easily).

The more time goes on, the more suspicious I am getting....



on edit: typo.

PS: Just a really devastating attack at the worst possible time for us to be informed and organized.

[Victory at Yorktown]

1. I thought this also

I think it was more than a coincidence that DU was out at that critical time when we could have had fast communication on "irregularities.

[Randomthought]

38. Me, too.

[we can do it]

46. Same here.

[BigmanPigman]

2. I didn't have a tablet or DU until March but I checked it out and saw the video.

Out of curiosity I looked into it and saw the cheesy video that supposedly was on DU before it went down. It looks very cheap, bad metal, 3rd grade visuals and somewhat "Eastern European" in style. Whoever did it was not very professional or maybe that was the purpose. Who knows?

[Coventina]

3. I happened to be on DU just as it was hacked by "God Emperor"

And, I agree, it does, somehow, seem like an Eastern European take on "stereotyping 'Murica."

[we can do it]

7. Me too. I knew something was up as the night wore on.

[robertpaulsen]

4. Raises a question in my mind: was there a police investigation?

This was a criminal act. I'd like to know who did it, even if the perp is, you know, outside the boundaries of our justice system. You know, like a Russian who pretends to be Romanian? Anyone know?

[NCTraveler]

9. I posted something similar below.

I've thought about starting an op on it since the election. It was a criminal act.

[Hekate]

10. Short answer: I believe so. You can check the Announcements section, where the early stuff still is

You can also go to Ask the Administrators and see if they have anything new to add.

However, anybody who's ever watched cop shows knows that victims are generally advised to keep quiet until the case is resolved.

Trust the Admins on this: they're doing what they can, and they'll tell us when there's something to tell.

[SoCalMusicLover]

18. If That's The Case

Then it stands to reason that it DOES involve the Russians somehow.

Couldn't there at least be a "no comment, it's still under investigation" statement, rather than...."DU is back after being hacked, now change your password and go about your business as if nothing happened."

Where there's smoke, there's fire. We all saw the smoke AND the fire. What we didn't ever get was the cause of the fire. Isn't that a critical part of the situation?

[Hekate]

43. I'll say it again to all: go to Ask the Admins. We are all concerned, but we are now straying into

...TOS territory, as in: picking apart how the Board is run. Gossip and rumor- mongering will get us nowhere.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Have you noticed any significant DU election monitoring at previous elections?

I haven't. I didn't see any in 2016 either. DU does very little election activism. No, I don't think it would have made any difference to the election. Really, the only area in which DU may affect general elections is turnout - if DU energises itself, nearly all DUers will vote (as happened with Obama, I reckon), and if there's some infighting, the turnout may be down a little.

[Coventina]

6. Yes, I d believe there is DU activism around elections.

Ever since the midterms of 2002, I can recall lots of threads about people reporting about stuff going on in their precincts, and, after the election is over, lots of threads about monitoring the returns and keeping tabs on the "hanky-panky."

For the 2016 election, I think most of DU was expecting Clinton to have an easy victory. (Remember the mocking of the "concern trolls"?) I think that there would have been a LOT of outcry and MORE protest about the results if we had been in communication with each other.

I'm in a red state, never really in question for Trump, so I merely sank into a deep, isolated depression after the election. But I think it could have made a difference in the "surprise" swing states.

But, we'll never know now, will we?



FWIW: I do blame Putin.

[CharleyDog]

41. We'll never know now, but

i blame the Republicans. They were protecting the beast.

[L. Coyote]

13. DU is one of the most intense election monitoring websites online, with a proven track record.

We started the election integrity forum after 2004 and that forum was the central hub of all election investigations beginning in 2004. It replaced the Election Fraud, Irregularity, and Reform Headlines

-- Media article links from Nov. 2004 to April 2005 --
..... zipped all the Headline HTML files in a single folder:

Download 2004 Election Fraud, Irregularity, and Reform Headlines archive.zip

[Hekate]

45. Plus a bajillion, Coyote

[we can do it]

58. Thank you. Sick of the fakes, bots and liars.

[cstanleytech]

33. Might not have been about election activism but about preventing us from communicating

because if Greg, Bonny, Steve and Kristine were in different states but able to talk about what was happening in their home states then something someone didnt want spotted might have been uncovered early.

[hurple]

35. It doesn't matter

If there is actually any activity on here around elections. What matters is what the group that hacked the site thinks happens here.

And "god emperor" is the alt-right nickname for trump.

[we can do it]

47. Yes - Especially 2004.

[NCTraveler]

8. I think we should have heard a lot more from the admins.

It was a criminal act.

[SoCalMusicLover]

14. Why Is That?

What really happened, and why did they just act like it was just a hacker somewhere that caused perhaps the most visited Democratic website out there to be shut down for over a week? That it happened at all, and nothing more was said about it than that is concerning. That it happened on the one day the website would experience more hits than in it's history, and then nothing more was said, is extraordinary.

Do the folks that run DU just not care? Do they know that it was just some ordinary joe-blow hacker in the U.S. that was responsible, end of story? Are they afraid of retaliation in the future? I can't think of what retaliation could be worse than the possibility the election was essentially STOLEN on Election Day from the rightful winner. One would think that those who run DU would want to leave no stone unturned to learn what really happened, who was responsible, and at least attempt to bring any guilty parties to justice.

Isn't the hacking of kind saw on Election Day a criminal act?

[NCTraveler]

15. Exactly.

[SoCalMusicLover]

16. I Just Wish There Were Further Info Given

I tend to be a conspiracy theorist....especially since Kerry lost in '04. My mind travels to a place where the Russians not only planned this for months, perhaps years, and began on election day afternoon by hacking DU, then by hacking the election results.

Now if DU ever honestly came out and said, "Quit with your conspiracy theories about the Russians being involved with the DU shutdown. There is no connection whatsoever with Russia, at least so far as DU is concerned."

But since they don't, I guess it just allows beliefs like mine to seem plausible. It also makes me think it's entirely likely to happen again....what's to stop it from that?

[Coventina]

19. Don't forget there was another major hack the day the Mueller investigation was announced.

[SoCalMusicLover]

24. Point Taken

Forgot about that one. Probably just a coincidence. LOL.

[Hekate]

44. See my post 43, please

[Madam45for2923]

11. I feel suspicious about this too.

Hope authorities know.

Everything is helpful in an investigation.

[L. Coyote]

12. You realize which thread on DU was going incredibly viral just as we were hacked?

Even by DU standards on a busy day, this thing was going off like a rocket. Not the view count now.

FBI has FISA warrant for Trump secret server connected to Russia.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/12512604434

And note who did not believe Louise Mensch's bombshell revelation.

[Ilsa]

17. I hope the FBI was notified so an investigation could be started.

I felt certain it was more than a prank, especially after NYTimes article, The Agency, was published, and there had been warnings.

Putin didn't want us comparing notes, challenging the election workers, especially in the close states.

[rawhideal]

20. Upset

I was really upset on election day. Hard to get different opinions here in Alabama.

[Coventina]

22. I feel your pain.

[Qutzupalotl]

21. I'd like to see us coalesce around a backup site next election

to report irregularities, suspicions, closures, malfunctions, running out of paper ballots, etc. Not necessarily a DU-hosted site, but some sort of plan B. Any suggestions? I never got the hang of Kos, LOL.

[Coventina]

23. That's a good idea.

We should plan on that for the 2018 midterms.

[Honeycombe8]

26. Yes. Good idea. nt

[Wednesdays]

53. We had a backup message board, a long time ago

In case our servers got overwhelmed, which at one time happened quite often. Also, didn't we have a flourishing Facebook site?

[Coventina]

56. Not everyone is on Facebook (me, for instance).

If there was a backup message board, I was unaware of it.

[Honeycombe8]

25. I know the answers to those questions. I think most of us agree on that.

Russia was very successful, with the help of traitors inside the U.S. That's the way infiltration is done.

[judesedit]

27. Maybe admin has some useful information for the feds

[Texin]

28. Quite frankly, I never thought it was a coincidence at all.

It had the smell of something very suspicious to me.

And, of course, as others are saying, Russia plans to be all over the mid-terms and beyond it. To add another layer onto an already devastating situation, the Koch brothers plan to spend $400 million dollars on that mid-term rethug election security blanket.

[DemoTex]

29. DemoTex thinks like Texin!

Or, Texin thinks like DemoTex.

[we can do it]

48. It really gave me the creeps, and the feeling still hasn't passed.

Things aren't right. It's hard to rest.

[L. Coyote]

51. Part of a larger plan in action on election day. Geee, wonder what that could have been?

Only one thing, making sure that the election rigging went off without a hitch or detection.

[mountain grammy]

52. Me neither.

It stunk to high heaven.. everything stinks.

[Drunken Irishman]

30. When DU went down, I got a really bad feeling...

No. I don't think it would have mattered a lick. But it did give me a very bad feeling of dread... that something terrible was afoot. I was at work when it went down and I kept checking sites to see projections and exit polls. Eventually, I went home still uneasy. The only point I felt good was the initial exit polls CNN released when states' polls closed - numbers that had Hillary doing okay. Even in Florida, it looked good. Briefly. Then it flipped to Trump after she led initially and John King said something about her running equal with Obama from 2012. When it went back to Trump, things shifted and I felt sick. Virginia was still not looking good and Michigan she was losing. Just an awful night.

[defacto7]

31. The hack shows that DU has important value

to be worth going to the trouble on such a critical day. If it were simply a prank hack they would have done it anytime for the hell of it. But to plan and execute it at that particular time surely tells a lot.

[bucolic_frolic]

32. Perhaps

screams for a backup system, or parallel group, googlegroups or yahoogroups
for the more active members, for the activists

[hadEnuf]

34. This may sound strange

but I think it was a "message" from those who new the election was in the bag for Trump via the hacking of the election system.

Almost like rubbing Democrats faces in it by taking down DU too.

[Akamai]

36. well, if it happens again, I hope that Democratic underground posts on Reddit.com

so we can track what the heck is going on.

[BainsBane]

37. No

[hack89]

39. You overestimate the real world impact of DU

Great site but not influential in any practical sense.

[Awsi Dooger]

54. Zero impact

Every registered DUer could have been online and posting and paying attention...no change.

Every right wing site could have been down...no change

[onenote]

40. DU being hacked was shitty beyond words

but DU is hardly the only or even the best site for conveying information any of its members might have had about "stuff" going on during the voting.

[lambchopp59]

42. DU has to be routinely monitored by RW activists

During the 2012 elections, I posted a thread that got more hits, under my older username of nightscanner, than I had ever garnered before or since. For good reason: I had put together some gerrymandering and vote-flipping info from some Stanford researchers and several other links to articles containing the "smoking gun" that elections are rigged, especially in Republican favor, despite what is generally circulated.
However, what happened next was truly astounding.
Within a couple hours of posting my blurb, all the links to my support sources had been re-routed to completely unrelated sites. A lot of them obviously fake sales-pitch sites and some to inane RW articles. I don't have the internet savvy to comprehend how this was done, but the links no longer worked, even when not copy/pasted and just typed into the address bar.
And this was just days before President Obama easily won re-election.
But it still smelled really bad, was notably lacking in troll-type actual responses, had a couple of replies with astonishment of what I'd put together, then turned into comments of links not corresponding to titles.
Yes I concur wholeheartedly that the hacking was NOT coincidentally timed.

[jimlup]

49. I think it was part of a larger coordinated attack on the American system of democracy

While we don't have hard evidence I'm beginning to suspect that some of the hack hit the vote totals.

And remember - this would be classified and even if they knew we still wouldn't.

Further, the mainstream media will try and avoid this if it is true because it would put too much of a gaping hole in the doctrinal system.

I wonder if any research has been done by computer scientists and political scientists on the limited amount of data we do have from the aborted recount attempts. Why were the Republicans so dead set against recounts???? I mean I understand them being against it - but they were frothing at the mouth against it. Did they know ahead that something was fishy and that the fish smelled dead?

Really bad shit hit our country on November 8th and yes, DU was part of that attack. I'm sure of it. Basically, because it is unlikely that mainstream media will ever tell the full truth - the attack will continue.

Democracy is dying. The fight is not over but the situation has become critical.

[FreepFryer]

50. Also - taking us down freed up a lot of jockeys for the election hacking itself.

Botherders and sockpuppeteers could focus on ensuring the vote counts they needed, instead of their usual propaganda here.

[Lurks Often]

55. Nothing would have changed if DU hadn't been hacked

You over estimate the importance of this site and the hack could have just as easily been a former DUer who had been banned and decided to get even by hacking DU on the day that would affect DUer's the most.

[we can do it]

59. Go away

[Lurks Often]

60. No

[AwakeAtLast]

57. I have had all of these thoughts.

Since election day.

[barbtries]

61. i don't think we could have changed the outcome

but at a very fraught time i missed DU intensely. When the hack occurred i was alone in a hotel in Philly, watching the returns and getting progressively more distraught. it was so lonely without DU. i checked back daily. i was on DU the 2nd time too. even at work i just click to DU all the time.