Boots & Sabers

The blogging will continue until morale improves...

Owen

Everything but tech support.
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1451, 16 Feb 18

Russians Charged with Interfering in U.S. Election

I doubt that this activity actually moved any votes, but I’m glad that we are taking actions to punish foreigners who committed crimes while trying to interfere with an American election.

It says a group of Russians:

  • Posed as Americans, and opened financial accounts in their name
  • Spent thousands of dollars a month buying political advertising
  • Purchased US server space in an effort to hide their Russian affiliation
  • Organised and promoted political rallies within the United States
  • Posted political messages on social media accounts that impersonated real US citizens
  • Promoted information that disparaged Hillary Clinton
  • Received money from clients to post on US social media sites
  • Created themed groups on social media on hot-button issues, particularly on Facebook and Instagram
  • Operated with a monthly budget of as much as $1.25m (£890,000)
  • Financed the building of a cage large enough to hold an actress portraying Hillary Clinton in a prison uniform

The indictment says those involved systematically measured how well their internet posts were doing and adjusted their strategies to maximise effectiveness.

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1451, 16 February 2018

14 Comments

  1. Kevin Scheunemann

    Aside from impersonating citizens, which I oppose….., they did “free speech”????

    I’m so tired of this issue, implying those of us who voted for Trump are some sort of Russian dupes.   I voted for Trump because Hillary, her political stands, her behavior, her collusion with foreign powers, and her excusing sexual assault/deviancy made her Satan incarnate to everything I stand for.

    Democrats ran the worst possible candidate, which is hilarious because Republicans ran the second worst possible candidate.

  2. jonnyv

    Kevin, this may be the first time I agree with you. :) In regards to the first and second worst candidate.

  3. Pat

    “Democrats ran the worst possible candidate, which is hilarious because Republicans ran the second worst possible candidate.”

    For me it was a coin flip as who was the worse possible candidate. After the past year of Trump my gut feeling has been, and daily continues to be confirmed. There were more than just those two to vote for. I voted for neither and sleep with a clear conscience.

  4. MjM

    Prediction:  Most major news outlets will skip over the Ruskies backing Bernie.

    *Financed the building of a cage large enough to hold an actress portraying Hillary Clinton in a prison uniform

    This is…….  hilarious!   (or should I say, “Hillaryous”?)

    Aside from impersonating citizens, which I oppose…

    “Impersonating” is the wrong term.  The charges are felony identity theft.  Ya known, like illegal aliens.  The stolen identities were used for wire and bank fraud.  As one who has been through it, I can tell you exactly what a giant pain in the arse it is, especially when dealing with the IRS.

    Which has me wondering: Couldn’t La Raza and such groups made up of mostly illegal aliens also be charged with like crimes?

  5. Kevin Scheunemann

    Oh Pat,

    Trump was a flawed candidate, but he has been impressive on many issues and has risen to challenge.

    He still stinks on deficit but he never claimed he was going to fix that like other primary opponents did.

    If you are not impressed with what Trump has done so far, nothing will impress you.

  6. Pat

    And I’m sure Clinton would have been impressive on a couple issues. She still was flawed and if had been elected, would be subjected to unending congressional investigations, along with a special council being appointed to investigate. We’d be exactly where we are now.

  7. Kevin Scheunemann

    Pat,

    Clinton never would have:

    1.) cut taxes
    2.) cut regulation
    3.) repeal invidual Obamacare mandate
    4.) rolled back all Obama executive orders
    5.) had balls to move embassy to Jerusalem
    6.) would not have delivered the greatest SOTU speech

    I could go on, but I would probably make you vomit with more Trump praise.

  8. Pat

    I love the motivated reasoning. Your ideology precedes rational morality. I guess that means you win this discussion. Congratulations! But I can still look my children and grandchildren knowing I didn’t compromise moral integrity for political ideology, can you?

  9. jonnyv

    “The greatest SOTU speech”????? Were you listening to the same one I was? Now, if you are grading it on a sliding Trump scale… I guess that could be the case. But that speech was nothing more than standard political talk. There was NOTHING “great” about it.

  10. Le Roi du Nord

    “Clinton never would have:”

    Guess none of us will ever know because HRC never became POTUS, unless you have a way to see an alternative reality, which wouldn’t be a surprising claim for k..

    FYI: the rollback claim is certainly bogus regardless of which reality you connect with…

     

     

     

  11. MjM

    Well, in fact, the Ruskies were NOT charged with interfering in the election….

    “Actually, Mueller indicted the Russians only for violating 18 U.S.C. §371 (conspiracy to defraud the United States), §§ 1343 and 1344 (wire fraud and bank fraud), and §1082(A) (identity theft). He did not indict them for violating 52 U.S.C. §30121 (contributions and donations by foreign nationals). The question is, why not?”
    “ – John Hinderaker http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/02/why-mueller-didnt-indict-the-russians-for-meddling-in-the-presidential-election.php

  12. dad29

    Because they did not make direct contributions/donations to the politicians, of course.

    And as we now know, 1)  the majority of their advertising was AFTER the election; and 2) the advertising was NOT meant to sway votes.  (Those facts came from FaceBook advertising executives….)

  13. dad29

    Another possibility, from A. McCarthy:

    What Comey described, and Rosenstein later adopted in defining Mueller’s jurisdiction, was not a criminal investigation or prosecution, nor did it provide a factual basis for a criminal investigation or prosecution.

  14. jonnyv

    All I am gonna say is be careful on what you spout off about. We are just beginning to see what Mueller knows. This was probably just the tip of the iceberg.

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