2/ . . . an operation to hack Democratic campaigns and weaponize the stolen material to undermine HRC's campaign and boost Trump.
Both of these operations violated US law.
Military Unit 74455 is a unit of the GRU.
3/ Military Unit 74455 hacked computers belonging to state boards of elections, secretaries of state, and U.S. companies that supplied software and other technology related to the administration of U.S. elections.
4/ The GRU targeted Florida County officials responsible for administering the 2016 US election. The FBI believes this operation enabled the GRU to gain access to the network of at least one Florida county government.
5/ The GRU began planning the release of the stolen material at least as early as April 19, 2016. Guccifer (a name adopted by GRU officers) began publishing material on June 15, 2016.
By July, the intent was to prevent HRC from consolidating Bernie Sanders support behind her.
6/ Within 5 hours of Trump’s famous “are you listening” comment, GRU officers for the first time targeted Clinton’s personal office.
Flynn recalled that Trump repeatedly wanted to find HRC’s “missing” emails. (Recall that they weren't actually missing.)
7/ Gates recalled Trump being generally frustrated that the Clinton emails had not been found.
Late summer 2016, Trump Campaign planned a press strategy, a communication campaign and message based on the possible release of Clinton emails by Wikileaks.
8/ Trump campaign showed “interest in WikiLeaks releases of hacked materials throughout the summer and fall. [Redactions due to ongoing matter]
Trump Jr. had direct electronic communication with Wikileaks.
Heavy redactions suggest that ongoing investigations into the IRA.
9/ The IRA was astonishingly successful. By the time of the election, the IRA had reached amd communicated with more than 120 million Americans through social media.
IRA accounts interacted with American Twitter users, including through direct messages.
10/ The question to ask Trump supporters is this:
Are you OK with the fact that Russia infiltrated our election, including hacking state election officials?
Are you OK with the fact that Trump and his campaign knew Russia was doing much of this and they lied to protect Russia?
11/ Are you OK with the fact that the GOP is not taking adequate steps to secure our elections?
How is allowing this “securing” our borders?
I don’t think many people would really enjoy living in the United States of Russia.
Putin knows how to wield disinformation and he knows that the United States is divided: A large portion of the population, including the most influential voices from a major political party, want the United States to emulate his Russia.
After Russia enacted anti-homosexual legislation, Pat Buchanan said Putin was “entering a claim that Moscow is the Godly city of today" because he was stamping out western evils like easy divorce and homosexuality. buchanan.org/blog/whose-sid…
2/
British right-winger Katie Hopkins, in an article in which she was interviewed with her friend Ann Coulter, said “Putin rocks.”
Katie Hopkins then went on to praise Russia as being “untouched by the myth of multiculturalism and deranged diversity."
Um . . . this isn't the defense Trump thinks it is.
Trump published a letter he received from Mazars dated (it looks like) 2014. He then summarized the letter.
#1: What Mazars said
#2: What Trump says Mazars said
Me = 🤦♀️
Does he think nobody can or will actually read it?
Mazars said, "Trump is responsible for preparing the financial statement."
Also Mazars does not "undertake to obtain or provide any assurance that there are no material modifications that should be made . . . "
Trump posts the letter and says Mazars "strongly states that all work was performed in accordance with professional standards and that there were "no material discrepancies in the financial statements."
. . . and concluded with thoughts about how social media brings out authoritarian instincts in large swaths of people who ordinarily would not be given to authoritarian impulses.
Indicting people and having juries return "not guilty" verdicts because there isn't evidence to prove each element of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt may not accomplish what people think it will accomplish.
One reason I think social media is turning everyone into authoritarians: people don't read or think.
They see a headline and have a strong emotional reaction, which they Tweet and which then gets repeated by others, who are also not thinking . . .
1/
Political psychologists like @karen_stenner describe the authoritarian personality.
Those with an authoritarian disposition are averse to complexity. They reject nuance.
They prefer sameness and uniformity and have “cognitive limitations.”
(link in the next Tweet)
2/
See for example, "Authoritarianism is not a momentary madness,” which originally appeared in this book, an dwhich Stenner has now made available free on her website, here: ……e-4700-aaa9-743a55a9437a.filesusr.com/ugd/02ff25_370…
Timothy Snyder also talks about the danger of what he calls Internet Memes.