This wasn't a election... It was a Russian and FBI Coup

[AmericanMan1958]

FBI Director James Comey announced the discovery of new emails "pertinent" to the case on October 28 — 11 days before the election — before clearing her again a week later.

"As evidence accumulates that Trump benefited from a lot of late deciders breaking his way, the case that it was Comey gets stronger," Krugman wrote in a tweet.

The US intelligence community publicly accused the Russian government of being behind the hacks of emails of members of Democratic Party organizations and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, whose electronic communications were released in droves by WikiLeaks during the final weeks of the campaign.

The head of the National Security Agency, Adm. Michael Rogers, said on Wednesday there shouldn't be "any doubt in anybody's mind" that there was "a conscious effort by a nation-state" to affect the outcome of the election.

"So it looks more and more as if we had an election swung, in effect, by a faction of our own security sector in alliance with Putin," Krugman wrote in a subsequent tweet.

http://www.businessinsider.com/paul-krugman-fbi-putin-comey-2016-11

As a veteran, this election causes me great concern about the link between the FBI and Russia. Hard evidence continue to prove there are connections that will certainly compromise this countries security. This elect accomplish something that our enemies have not been able to accomplish through force of power. We gave control of this great country to a communist foreign power through our vote. Comey, Trump and their minions are traders and their greed for money and power may destroy all of us.

[libtodeath]

1. If they get away with this then we are finished as a country.

[lark]

7. That's their plan

destroy us from within and let Russia take over as sole world power while the donald actually replenishes his failing coffers on money Russia gives him and money he steals from America. Bet he has the government pay for Melania's suite in Trump Towers. Bet you lots of money that the infrastructure deal is all about privatization of our roads and bridges from which he will make tons of money in partnership with the true builders. I truly hate every single person that voted for trump, giving our country over to fascism, violence, hatred, assault, theft and criminality.

[MADem]

11. 1,000,000! nt

[RKP5637]

53. The election win for Trump was not even remotely by chance. It was a Coup to instill a highly

profitable RW US government, which will lead to the downfall of any hint of a democracy in the US. Many of those worshiping Trump haven't the faintest idea of what is going on. They are too ignorant to look behind the curtain to even attempt to comprehend what is going on. The US democracy was a good run while it existed, but that is all history now. The true Idiocracy of it all is Trump supports are too damn stupid to realize he doesn't give a fuck about them. They were used as stooges to propel him into office, and then the Coup sealed the deal.

[tavalon]

63. And we can't let that happen

While we can grouse for a bit. Americans and especially DU, TYT, Keith Olbermann and too many other leaders of the resistance to name, need to put their thinking caps on and get ready to go to work thwarting this administration at every turn.

[lark]

70. Repugs for years have pushed mediocricy in education, pushed ignorance as a virtue.

They had the long game, and destroying our knowledge based system was key. So, they have all these people that hate intellect and facts and those people, by design, are stupid. They are so stupid, they couldn't figure out that someone who's been sued hundreds of times for fraud is a criminal fraud. Someone who has stated they didn't treat women right, is a serial assaulted. Someone who cheats students and workers will treat them well? Stupidity incarnate. A lot more of this supporters than the general population are on Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid. All of that is getting cut, even stupid people know when they can't afford healthcare or rent because all the government programs that used to help them have been privatized and no longer provide the necessary help. By fucking themselves, they have totally screwed over all of us but the rich. They are the unwitting tools of the uber rich, who are the only ones that will prosper in a Drumpf America, by design.

Repugs will do nothing to hold him accountable, and they will deeply regret this when Russia invades Ukraine, Lativa, Estonia, etc. and Drumpf will not answer the call of NATO and just cede Russia whatever they want.

I wish Obama would start a critical review of Russia cyber hacking our election. When you look at a chart of polls by state and the actual results, it sure looks fishy. There are no states that skewed to the left, no one. However there were a number of states with unexplained, unexpected, shifts to the right and they were, big surprise, FL, WI, PA, MI and NC. All of those states had higher than average or expected non-votes for president. Bet if they could isolate those, they'd also find the under-votes were on Dem ballots.

[RKP5637]

71. You are exactly correct and I agree 1000%. Americans have become more and more stupid, and good luck

in the 21st century with that. America is on a downward spiral and many are going to be left out and Trump is not going to do a F'en thing to save them and likely considers them losers, whom he used as pawns to get elected. These damn fools are being snowed in by a bullshit storm from Trump. The wealthy elites will continue on, and the damn fools that elected him will be doomed to be peasants.

[gordianot]

2. Include Rogers of the NSA who it appears Obama is working to remove.

Obama can destroy him before the Trump rewards him.

[Fla Dem]

4. I do find it surprising Adm Rogers agrees there was interference by an outside player

given the movement to oust him from his job.

Pentagon and intelligence community chiefs have urged Obama to remove the head of the NSA
By Ellen Nakashima November 19 at 2:15 PM

The heads of the Pentagon and the nation’s intelligence community have recommended to President Obama that the director of the National Security Agency, Adm. Michael S. Rogers, be removed.

The recommendation, delivered to the White House last month, was made by Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter and Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr., according to several U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

Action has been delayed, some administration officials said, because relieving Rogers of his duties is tied to another controversial recommendation: to create separate chains of command at the NSA and the military’s cyberwarfare unit, a recommendation by Clapper and Carter that has been stalled because of other issues.

The news comes as Rogers is being considered by President-elect Donald Trump to be his nominee for director of national intelligence to replace Clapper as the official who oversees all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies. In a move apparently unprecedented for a military officer, Rogers, without notifying superiors, traveled to New York to meet with Trump on Thursday at Trump Tower. That caused consternation at senior levels of the administration, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal personnel matters.

More>>>>

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/pentagon-and-intelligence-community-chiefs-have-urged-obama-to-remove-the-head-of-the-nsa/2016/11/19/44de6ea6-adff-11e6-977a-1030f822fc35_story.html

[KittyWampus]

12. And yet, apparently Rogers did nothing about it. He was absent from his job on a regular basis

Major security leaks happened under his watch both at the NSA and a previous job... AND HE JUST BREACHED MILITARY PROTOCOL BY GOING TO A JOB INTERVIEW WITH TRUMP.

It's entirely possible Rogers used his position to help Trump and Russia through Malign Neglect.

[MADem]

15. This is a fire-able offense.

Rogers, without notifying superiors, traveled to New York to meet with Trump on Thursday at Trump Tower

That's gross insubordination.

[Dustlawyer]

3. And if they were to look I know they would find tampering with the electronic voting system

in Penn, WI, NC, and FL.

[PatSeg]

5. Oh I'm sure you are right

Then add all the voter suppression and disenfranchisement and you have a perfect storm.

[AmericanMan1958]

23. Agree!!

A perfect GOP Man-made storm!!!

[PatSeg]

47. They are really good at it

Don't know how to govern, but they know how to "win" elections.

[AmericanMan1958]

48. My GOTV partner and I were discussing that very thing.

We discussed all the dirty tricks and bullshit we have witness over the years.

Just amazed on how creative they have been, in a disgusting way.

I will always continue to believe it take a real crook and liar,
To always accuse everyone of being a crook and a liar.

I try not to hate, but they broke me.
I hate the GOP and will always work to destroy them.
Not just to win an election.
I want them gone.
They are a cancer to a caring society!

[PatSeg]

50. You are not alone

They lie and cheat, while represent the top 1%, then they accuse the opposition of lying and cheating. Their primary goal is always winning at any cost. There are no principles or morality in their playbook, just win, win, win.

I just want them to be a perpetual minority party, some place where the losers can go and hang out. Unfortunately, they've convinced a lot of people that somehow they are the party of morality, prosperity, and my favorite, "the family". If people keep falling for this crap over and over again, I guess they get what they deserve. Sadly, we get stuck with their poor decisions.

[Bear Creek]

66. Machines

They have known those machines were vulnerable for the last 8 yrs. did nothing about them. Complacent since Obama won but funny how a very popular president had no impact on down stream democrats and the republicans controlled enough so nothing could be done.

[SunSeeker]

6. K & R

[gulliver]

8. That was a given. Our voters let themselves down.

We needed to go into this assuming that the Republicans and a bunch of other players were going to play dirty. The bad guys came out of the woodwork. It was the only way they could win. Now, what are we going to do about it? That's the question.

The counter-coup starts with the mid-terms. Every single Republican needs to be voted out of every single office.

[ancianita]

21. It's also got to be done by playing the state-by-state game better than Republicans do.

Remember the lessons of the popular vote losses.

They've won by numbers while we concentrate on hearts and minds. Voters have to know that their very status as citizens will be at stake until we can restructure elections, or else we've got little leverage except through continuous court battles over partisan control of voter access across this country.

If we don't work on restructuring state elections, we'll stay the minority party.

[gulliver]

28. I agree.

I just think that we need a simpler organizing principle. Assuming Trump makes a huge mess and that we survive it as a democracy, we may be able to get a huge backlash against Republicans in the mid-terms. I hope all liberal-minded and cool-thinking people now understand that there is a huge difference between the Republican "entity" and the Democratic one. If not, Trump stands a good chance of giving us a lot more lessons.

A huge backlash against Republicans and toward Democrats would swamp the Republican cheating mechanisms and we could return to more fair play and civility. Right now, one party is being rewarded for bad behavior.

[ancianita]

31. What would it be but money & candidates who fight to win? Fair play is what's fair to the winners,

a reality that has little to do with fairness for the greatest good for the greatest number.

Backlashes haven't carried weight with governors or state houses.

I'm not trying to be defeatist, but we have to really face that winning hearts and minds with culture wars and morality politics didn't win this election, and probably won't have any major impact ever again, until the population really, really suffers enough and really backs moral candidates who also know how to win at state and federal levels.

That's going to take a while, I think.

[gulliver]

45. Backlash is the best card in our hand.

Yes, we do have to have plausible candidates and a certain amount of money. But I don't think either of those is as important as taking the battering ram of Trump rejection and aiming it squarely at the Republican Party as an entity. Our candidates have to run into the breach created by the battering ram once it has done its work.

Say, for example, that we want to put a Democrat into a State Senate spot. Suppose we Dems find a reincarnation of Cincinnatus to run as our candidate to fill that spot. Suppose we give Cincinnatus a million dollars. Finally, suppose we run Cincinnatus against a reincarnated Caligula (R). If we try to make the race a Cincinnatus vs. Caligula race, we lose.

Why? Habit and unavoidable ignorance. Our voters are in the habit of not voting in mid-terms. And no one knows the difference between Cincinnatus and Caligula, anyway, or has time to find out. Even if they did try to find out, they would go to the Internet, and it would tell them that both Cincinnatus and Caligula have their good and bad points. The local newspaper that used to have stories about Cincinnatus saving the lives of a bunch of orphans from a fire set by Caligula is gone, because no one read it.

For us to win, the election has to be simple. Voters should go into the booth and vote for every Democrat and against every Republican. Punish every Republican for the misdeeds of Trump (that we assume will happen). If we have another Great Recession, the Republicans are to blame, because they created Trump. Vote every single one of them out.

"Vote out all Republicans" is simple and more than justified.

[ancianita]

46. I want to agree with your backlash premise, but I can't. Children have to go to school, people have

to hold households together for stability, safety and peace for kids. Backlash has to get social media attention, MSM attention, and we saw from Occupy how that only worked for a minute, whatever their terms were on the public's behalf.

I want to believe your voting strategy, too, but we've seen with Hillary (and Gore?) how the popular vote lost. By now, Republicans and big money have rigged the politics and machinery of voter purges, access and vote counting in their favor, so even voting every single one of Republican out won't work. To change voting we'll need a nationwide forensic audit so we can learn how to prevent what's worked for Republicans, their election funders and voting machinery operatives.

I think the only effective backlash would be a nationwide tax strike. I've done some reading on it. It's worked on small scale. A tax strike is a refusal. It's not done in public, doesn't risk hurt or injury to the strikers, and best of all they couldn't jail all of us. Or even half or even a quarter. A tax strike would bring the controllers of government to "the table" to agree to an election overhaul, which I can detail if you like.

But mass movements, while energizing like Bernie's, still don't get 49% of us to vote. It won't get lifelong conservatives or those who don't know who this country's enemies are to vote, either. We've had to think long about those problems. Hearts and minds politics only goes so far. But it's failed, as moral and right and logical as it is, and as long as we keep pushing it, that's how long as we will remain the losing party out of power.

[Baitball Blogger]

9. I don't think I'll trust the FBI again.

I was, mostly, over the fence anyway.

[MADem]

10. I said "soft coup" the day Comey started shooting off his mouth.

Comey's name will go down in history--next to the likes of Quisling and Benedict Arnold.

[KittyWampus]

13. I believe same can be said of Rogers. He was absent from the NSA often,

and just breached military protocol by going to a job interview with Trump.

And there were and continued to be major security lapses under Rogers. He was put there to deal with that exact issue. After Snowden.

It is entirely possible he is working for Trump, Russia by using Malign Neglect.

[MADem]

16. He more than breached protocol. What he did was insubordinate.

He should be fired with prejudice--and investigated, heavily.

[KittyWampus]

25. At least it should go on his permanent military record.

[JTFrog]

51. I see alarms when we talk about Russia hacking us and where is Snowden?

There are reasons there are punishments for what he did.

[ancianita]

14. Entirely plausible. I've been calling Trump the Russian's trojan horse for the last few weeks.

[ancianita]

17. It's been no small thing that the Pentagon says to beware of Adm. Michael S. Rogers,

head of the NSA and probable counter-intelligence man, meeting with a Russian trojan horse like Trump. In Trump Tower, rather than Washington.

We've known from scant info we've gotten, that Trump, in debt to Russian oligarchs, is more than likely to manipulate events in Putin's favor, even if it's to do nothing to protect our historical allies against Russia's aggressions. The Pentagon leaks to the press as our security apparatus gets meddled with, possibly weakened, by a know-nothing.

No 'Hamilton' bs dramas, we are going to have to pay very close attention to leaks and real geopolitical sources from now on. This is a war of attrition, and right now we're losing.

But all's not lost. We've still got a military brass that wants a good home country base, I believe.

[workinclasszero]

18. Russia plus FBI plus National News media email BS

= stolen election.

Hillary's vote count is 1.4 million and rising over #notmypresident

[Buzz Clik]

19. ..

[UCmeNdc]

20. USA intelligence agency seems paralyzed by Russian Cyber Spying.

What is going on with the FBI and NSA ops?

Why do they seem so slow and incompetent?

Is it the fault of politics within their leadership?

[workinclasszero]

22. They have been penetrated and neutralized by Putin/Russia

Dumpf's bbf

[UCmeNdc]

39. There is something wrong going on over there

Both of the agencies seem paralyzed when it comes to Russian cyber disinformation attacks.

[lonestarnot]

69. I can't believe they don't know how to deal with it.

[duffyduff]

24. It is secondary. The real blame is the media. n/t

[lonestarnot]

26. Nazis and Russians have taken over America.

[hueymahl]

27. I love Krugman, but he is going off the deep end on this.

He has watched too many Jason Bourne movies.

There is an old saying by Carl Sagan that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Right now Krugman has a thin gruel of conspiracy theories and coincidence he is spinning into an extraordinary claim. This does nothing but inflame the worst in us (see the nut jobs on the right and all of their conspiracy theories).

[JTFrog]

30. This isn't some hyped up conspiracy theory.

Alarm bells have gone off across the country for a reason. And we aren't talking about whining from disgruntled nut jobs. We are talking scholars and election experts. With all the evidence of Russia's hacking, to just dismiss this as a fringe conspiracy is a huge disservice to those devoting their time investigating this and incredibly insulting to many of us.

[hueymahl]

33. Right now it is little more than conspiracy theories that this was some type of coordinated effort

It is certainly worth looking into. But before we elevate hardball politics and to a "Russian Coup", Extraordinary Evidence needed. We don't want to turn into the alt-left.

[JTFrog]

36. Oh for fuck's sake. Alt-left?

We all saw with our own two eyes and heard with our own two ears James Comey come out and throw the election with lies and bullshit. We've heard from many national security experts on the hacking by Russia. Trump had a fucking server setup directly to Russia.

Alt-left my ass.

[KittyWampus]

58. You are wrong. The FACT is Far Right regimes have begun springing up in Europe

And now that America has been screwed over, France and then Germany are next.

The Far Right IS working with Putin/Russia.


http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/11/20/1602158/-This-is-Directly-From-Steve-Bannon-s-Breitbart-This-is-Really-Happening-We-Can-t-Kid-Ourselves

[mountain grammy]

29. All we needed was 60 million suckers a complicit media

and a rigged election. Voila! Fascism.

[Coyotl]

32. No, it was a Republican coup with a lot of fronts, an ongoing conspiracy against democracy.

And it has been going on for a long time. This election is just the latest episode and they still had to pull out some new, last minute tactics to squeak out an EC majority.

What happens if we are able to pin hacking the DNC on Trump and the Republicans?

It detracts from efforts to right the wrongs of election integrity and voter suppression by pointing to Russia when Republicans are the culprits.

[hueymahl]

34. Agreed. NT

[ucrdem]

35. plus 1

That's been my strong suspicion all along. US intel factions have the partisan motive, means, and opportunity, not to mention irrational hatred of Hillary, and I have yet to see evidence that Russia has any of them.

[KittyWampus]

60. If you haven't seen evidence of Russia being involved then you must not have read any news.

Trump had a server to Russia, the freaking NSA SAID Russia hacked the DNC/Podesta/Voter Data Bases.

Flynn was dining in Russia with Putin and working for them.

Trump himself spent time in Russia.

Bannon (who started working w/Trump earlier than this year) and the White Supremacists are linked to Russia.

[ucrdem]

61. Yes but who's making the claims?

Have you seen this? 4th paragraph especially:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141621622

[JTFrog]

37. It was a joint effort and the ties should be made clear. nt

[ancianita]

43. Absolutely. You have to have willing riggers who would win at all costs. It now it costs. Dearly.

[KittyWampus]

59. I am really tired of DU'ers who insist on pretending the Russians aren't involved.

It reeks.

[Coyotl]

62. So, show some evidence that you are not pretending they are.

Simple enough, provide evidence they are involved. Until then, who is pretending something?

[cilla4progress]

38. All it would take is a leak of

The tax returns. I can't believe there is NO ONE at the IRS with the access and desire / patriotism to do so!

[still_one]

40. Without a doubt it was a comey and FBI coup. We may never know what role the Russians played

but it was the FBI interference in the election that significantly contributed to our loss, and that comey is never going to be held accountable for that is an outrage

[heaven05]

41. 1000

america will never be the force it has always been. Some good decisions, some bad but head and shoulders above the rest even with our internal shortcomings. The coup started in 2000, this with the help of Comey and the russians is the final culmination of that coup that Florida gave the republiKKKan party.

[Botany]

42. It sure was

add in the unending investigations into nothing by congress, a media that talked about HRC's emails
but not about Trump U, wiki leaks, the Russians, and a dirty vote and you have a coup.

[Sunny05]

54. You got that right. nt

[world wide wally]

44. This is glaringly true.

I said the same thing the day after the election, but I also included cable news networks.
America has been taken over and we better own up to it.
We will never be the same again, let alone "great"

[Skittles]

49. NO SHIT

and SHAME on all the Americans WENT ALONG WITH IT

[DemonGoddess]

52. K&R!

[Turbineguy]

55. Those who voted for Trump think they are patriots.

What if it were to turn out they actually are patriots?

That might be awkward.

[FailureToCommunicate]

56. K & R

[ucrdem]

57. That would make 3 stolen presidencies in 16 years.

So what did we do for 18 months before the election? Secure the vote by rigorously challenging GOP tricks and traps being set right and left?

Nnooooooooooooooo.



Sigh.

[Kablooie]

64. That would certainly explain why the polls were so outrageously wrong.

[McCamy Taylor]

65. Putin and the Koch Brothers selected Trump and he will declare war against Iran after allowing

the usual suspects to commit an act of violence that will kill hundreds or thousands of innocents. I don't have a crystal ball, but I am guessing it will be a dirty bomb, because then they can claim that Iran's nuclear program is too dangerous to be allowed to continue and then the Puppet Trump will launch an air strike against Iran and send in troops to "liberate" that country's oil fields and kill a lot of Shites, making the Saud Family very happy and eliciting a few half hearted cheers and mostly a lot of bored yawns from Americans who won't really give a damn about the fate of the Iranian people---until gasoline prices rise over $4 at the pump.

[malaise]

67. I think it was a coup

Not sure who but it's looking more like an inter-agency inside job

[KatyBR]

68. They also attacked state and local election system servers

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/10/07/russia-s-senior-most-officials-ordered-dnc-hack.html

"Officials also said they had detected Russian attempts to target state and local-level elections systems.

“We also worked as quickly as possible to release as much information as possible in order to provide state and local officials sufficient time to fortify their infrastructure,” the official said. The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI have put state elections officials on notice that hackers have been trying to access voter registration files and could cause havoc on Election Day. So far, 25 states have asked the department to help scan their computer networks for security weaknesses.
ADVERTISING

Notably, the statement didn’t blame the Russian government for targeting state elections systems, but it did say the activity had been traced to servers owned by a “Russian company.”

--why isn't the media covering this?? They have just been saying the DNC was targeted...