Sen. Dianne Feinstein: Russia helps elect the new president

[Shepherd]

Be sure to click on the link below, which leads to a 14 page document from the intelligence community.

Washington—Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today released the following statement on the intelligence community’s recent report on Russian hacking of the U.S. presidential election:

Read the report here: https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf.

“I encourage all Americans to read the unclassified assessment of Russian hacking activity released last week by the U.S. intelligence community. I’ve received classified briefings on this issue and can confidently say that the unclassified report accurately reflects that additional information.

“I’m convinced that Russia not only engaged in cyber attacks against both political parties last year in an effort to influence the presidential election, but that their interference continues today.

“I’ve seen a lot of reports during my 16 years on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and the report released on January 6 is among the strongest I’ve read. It covers the motivation and scope of Russia’s actions regarding our elections as well as the cyber tools and media campaigns they used to influence public opinion.

“I believe the Russians had three goals: first to undermine the American public’s faith in our democratic process, second to damage Secretary Clinton’s electability and third to help Donald Trump’s election chances when possible.

“The report goes on to highlight that immediately after Election Day, Russian intelligence began a spearphishing campaign targeting U.S. government employees and individuals associated with think tanks and non-governmental organizations related to national security, defense and foreign policy.

“It should go without saying that foreign interference of any kind in our democratic process is intolerable and must not go unanswered. This issue must not be politicized—all Americans should be outraged at Russia’s actions. And a clear understanding of what they did is an important first step.”

[SonomaPatientsCoop]

Hmm. It's pretty clear Russian hacking was involved in the election. And as outraged as we should be... it also makes us hypocrites. How many elections has the US interfered in? How many assinations during just my lifetime? How many times have we supported juntas and death squads to overthrow democratically elected (albeit often communist/socialist leaning) governments. ?

I'm not denying that this should concern everyone- it should. But by the same token- our own nations manipulation- often violently, of other soveirgn nations is something too many in our country have long turned a blind eye to.

I'll admit- and this is not going to be a popular thing to admit- when I woke up and was having my coffee on 9/11 and watched the planes flying into the towers... the first words out of my mouth were "Holy shit! "They" finally did it. The chickens have come home to roost".

As a final thought- the Republicans appear to have been hacked as well. With no releases of info. May be just playing favorites...but we must also consider the leverage Russia may be holding over some portions of the republican establishment.

[Shepherd]

I certainly agree that the U.S. government has done all these horrible things--interfering in elections, assasinations, juntas, death squads, etc. That is where my focus has been. However, that does not make us "hypocrites" to note that another country helped install our current president, and thus reduce our democracy even further.