Hey steele how come I can't embed links in post comments?

Because I was fixing the html filter and apparently fixed it too well. I'll try and get that fixed tomorrow afternoon.

OK, thx. I hate having to directly paste links in the comments because it makes me look like some kind of doddering old luddite. ;)

Okay, I think we're good now.

Yup! Thx!

So what exactly WAS the nature of the interference? How come that question is so alarmingly hard to answer?

Scroll down to the section of the article subtitled 'The Spear-Phishing Attack', it lays out the plan pretty clearly.

You mean the part that says "It is unknown if the GRU was able to successfully compromise any of the entities targeted in this [campaign?]" Doesn't that pretty much conclude that Russia DIDN'T interfere in any meaningful way? To me, this entire situation reads as "We know somebody tried to do SOMETHING, and they MAY have been using Russian IP's which MIGHT'VE been used under approval of a group that uses a method SIMILAR to the GRU."

But if at any point, anyone considers this entire narrative of Russian collusion and election tampering suspect at best, they should be instantly dismissed as an Un-American fascist.

You mean the part that says "It is unknown if the GRU was able to successfully compromise any of the entities targeted in this [campaign?]" Doesn't that pretty much conclude that Russia DIDN'T interfere in any meaningful way?

Um... no? If we could conclude that, then it wouldn't be unknown anymore.

Yet we can conclude with certainty that they're directly responsible for Hillary losing the election. Good to know.

This is just more of the same vague conjecture we've been given throughout the entire year, but this time, it's REALLY the smoking gun you guys!

The intelligence services of this country have never lied to us for political reasons before, after all...

Yet we can conclude with certainty that they're directly responsible for Hillary losing the election. Good to know.

No, because if we could conclude that it also wouldn't be unknown anymore.

Even if there's no evidence the Russians influenced the outcome, there's plenty of evidence that they at least tried. Coupled with the established connections Trump's top advisors had with the Russkies, don't you think it's worth at least as much scrutiny as Obama's birth certificate?

And this information only details in broad terms what they tried to do. It doesn't detail if they were successful since it was a phishing scheme. They targeted vendors and organizations across the board, with multiple entities.

I'm wondering if they were successful with others, only it's not being reported. And if they were, how would that look if it became public knowledge that voting software or registries were hacked? In other words, I have my doubts that it would be made public. And that's one reason why some are being cautious I think, and even Shiff is saying to pump the brakes on impeachment.

From the beginning of this scandal the supposition has been that Russia's real goal wasn't necessarily directly interfere in the election but to undermine confidence in the electoral system. Even if they didn't successfully hack voting mechanisms just the knowledge that they tried might help accomplish this. How this information reflects on Trump is a whole different question. But any impeachment talk is way premature, mainly for political reasons. The current House will never impeach him.

If they find a smoking gun and it makes its way into the public, I wonder what the GOP will do. Especially if there are direct links, and laws were broken.

Russia has more than one goal. 'Undermining confidence' is what is being fed to us and would be their consolation prize. Based on what I know about putin, they were aiming for something much bigger. It should also be noted that putin, prior to stealing Crimea and invading Ukraine, required all russian social media be housed in servers on russian soil and wanted the same filters china requested from google. He also required websites with more than 1,500 hits, regardless of content, register with the gov, and are subject to being monitored.

The thought that a foreign entity altering an election based on (mis)information wars and infiltrating the election system/ software is unheard of and an act of war. How do you respond to an act of war? Do you admit it? What would be the repercussion for either keeping it quiet or making it public? The US does this shit all over the globe. It places the US in a very precarious situation, and putin knows this. Just like he uses the invasion of Iraq to justify his aggression.

This is uncharted, dangerous territory as well as a slow moving story. We really won't know what the fuck really happened for years, if at all.

Hey 'acts of war' ain't what they used to be, especially considering how much more is at stake when you're talking about major nuclear powers. Even if the worst scenarios involving Russia meddling in the election came to light, I doubt we'd see any kind of push toward actual hostilities from the public or elected officials. If it were a smoking gun for Trump it really would depend on the loyalty of his base. If he continues to be consumed by scandal to a point where his populist agenda just collapses, maybe his support will as well. But a lot of these folks are in such a deep denial of reality that they'd still blame the media and support Trump.

Saney (mad?), if only you had such zeal for the Clinton election misdeeds, rather than the fantastic fictions of Trump Derangement.

You're in for a long four eight years.