HYPERBOLIC HYPE

HYPERBOLIC HYPE

The Russian hacking of our 2016 election story never passes the sniff test. The case is ludicrously flimsy. Realty Winner is going to jail for leaking what might be the only actual evidence, and the problem might be that she unintentionally proved that it doesn't show anything.

With Reality Winner Sentenced, Does The Intercept Owe Answers?

(The Real News.com)

"AARON MATE: And I want to give you an indication of why I’m skeptical that this was Russian military intelligence aside from the fact that the analyst who wrote this report, it’s just their judgment, not even confirmed information as the, again, the document specifies. But so, in their attempts to impersonate this company, this voting company, VR Systems, the hackers wrote these fake emails from VR Systems in their attempts to falsely portray themselves as VR Systems as vr.systems@gmail.com. So, you’d think if the Russian military intelligence was trying to impersonate VR Systems, they’d be a bit more sophisticated in trying to steal, trying to mask their email address in an actual @vrsystems.com domain instead of @gmail.com, which is a pretty big give-away that these are not sophisticated hackers."

How the Department of Homeland Security Created a Deceptive Tale of Russia Hacking US Voter Sites

(Consortiumnews.com)

"The narrative about Russian cyberattacks on American election infrastructure is a self-interested abuse of power by DHS based on distortion of evidence, writes Gareth Porter.

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The narrative of Russian intelligence attacking state and local election boards and threatening the integrity of U.S. elections has achieved near-universal acceptance by media and political elites.  And now it has been accepted by the Trump administration’s intelligence chief, Dan Coats, as well. 

But the real story behind that narrative, recounted here for the first time, reveals that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) created and nurtured an account that was grossly and deliberately deceptive. 

DHS compiled an intelligence report suggesting hackers linked to the Russian government could have targeted voter-related websites in many states and then leaked a sensational story of Russian attacks on those sites without the qualifications that would have revealed a different story. When state election officials began asking questions, they discovered that the DHS claims were false and, in at least one case, laughable."

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U.S. elections are rigged from the inside, the two major parties conspire to marginalize non-conformists in a myriad ways. We have more to fear from our own career politicians and their corporate puppet masters than from foreign agents.

Check out yesterday's update at WWW.GREGPALAST.COM:

I’m In Wichita To Sue Trump’s Purge’n General - To Stop Kobach From Stealing Stacey Abrams’ Votes In Georgia Race — Plus 26 Other Elections!

"...if you’re near Wichita on Friday, join me and Women for Kansas at the Orpheum Theater, 8pm, for the film — and a plan of counter-attack to stop Kris Kobach’s latest “purge by postcard” operation. On the basis of Kobach’s phony accused “fraudulent voter” list, 27 states, almost all GOP-controlled, have already removed 1,067,046 voters – not counting Brian Kemp’s latest purge-frenzy."