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posted by martyb on Friday July 26 2019, @11:12PM   Printer-friendly
from the just-looking? dept.

Russian hackers probed election systems in all 50 states, a new Senate report confirmed Thursday.

The report comes one day after former special counsel Robert Mueller told Congress that the Russian government is working to meddle in U.S. elections "as we sit here."

"It wasn't a single attempt," Mueller said Wednesday of Russia's 2016 election interference. "They're doing it as we sit here. And they expect to do it during the next campaign."

The bipartisan report by the Senate Intelligence Committee released Thursday confirmed previous comments by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that Russian hackers scanned election systems in all 50 states ahead of the 2016 presidential election. DHS initially acknowledged Russian attempts to hack into election systems in just 21 states.

Russia targeted all 50 states in 2016 election hacking campaign, Senate report confirms


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Immerman on Saturday July 27 2019, @12:50AM (12 children)

    by Immerman (3985) on Saturday July 27 2019, @12:50AM (#871689)

    Yep, let's go back paper - we never had any good reason to leave. Convenience? Speedy results? The entire rest of the electoral system still rests on assumptions from a time when the pony express was the fasted means of communication, and there's some very real concerns as to how fast results may be warping people's voting patterns.

    Security? Computer security is a joke when administered by non-experts, and we don't do half of the cheap and easy things we could do to radically improve the security of paper ballots - many of which would have close analogs when maintaining electronic voting security anyway.

    There are some really interesting systems of voting that are far more practical with computers, but unless and until we decide to explore those options there's no reason to even consider bringing that kind of vulnerability to something so vital to democracy. The payout for subverting it is astronomical, while the effort to secure it is...bureaucratic at best. And I don't see any way to avoid that inevitable subversion in the world we currently live in.

    And if we decide we really do want to explore some of the more computerized forms of voting? For Twain's sake let's not start with high-stakes state and federal elections on the line! It's basically just software - so release it freely and encourage schools, corporations, and community groups to use it for elections of all sorts - and encourage everyone to try to subvert it. Offer cash prizes to anyone who can prove they stole an election. Give it a serious thrashing and at *least* get all obvious bugs and vulnerabilities worked out before you bring it anywhere near the sort of power wielded by governments.

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  • (Score: 2) by gtomorrow on Saturday July 27 2019, @03:45AM

    by gtomorrow (2230) on Saturday July 27 2019, @03:45AM (#871748)

    Probably the most intelligent post I've read in a while, not only on this site but in general. Bravo.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Saturday July 27 2019, @02:48PM (10 children)

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Saturday July 27 2019, @02:48PM (#871931)

    The way to steal an election has always been to select the candidates.

    Bernie was obviously the choice of the people, Hillary was the choice of the crooks and the public hates her, she "won" the nomination so the people stayed home on election day.

    The R-party had degenerated over the years into a shitty version of "we stand for nothing other than running the democrat party platform from your parents generation". Plus a dose of neocons where 95%+ of Jews vote democrat so if we abandon all our principles and beliefs in dogmatic pandering to Israel maybe we could poll up to 10% or so of Jews while of course losing the support of everyone else. The pre-Trump R party was a complete shit show. Nobody wants to vote for those losers. So Trump starts stampeding thru the R-party noms and the shitty propaganda newsreaders on FOX are crying on the air, LOL.

    You CAN cheat a coin toss using ultra high speed cameras and real time large scale computation hooked up to ultra high current low inductance electromagnets to control the spin of the coin in the air by inducing massive eddy currents as it spins so as to land on the selected side. Its a hell of a lot cheaper and simpler to declare you are gonna be "heads" and BTW we also selected a two-headed coin for the toss. Then keep the general public sedated with endless propaganda about how we invented the idea of having the fairest coin tosses on the planet and anyone who disagrees isn't devout enough and is evil for not blindly trusting except for when we tell you the Russians are using ESP to telekineticly mess with the coin toss.

    I can't believe it, but at this time the front runner for the D party is creepy Biden, the guy with a million press photos of him fondling and feeling up young, very uncomfortable looking, women and girls. Yeah, I'm sure there won't be any memes about that, LOL. Honestly its like the enemies of the "D" party are in charge of the "D" party.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Gaaark on Saturday July 27 2019, @03:35PM (4 children)

      by Gaaark (41) on Saturday July 27 2019, @03:35PM (#871969) Journal

      Yeah, i don't get it: Biden is SUUUUPER creepy and so 'same ol same ol' that he's Hillary.

      WHY are they bringing up another Hillary? So Trump can tweet "At least i don't grab underage pussy like Biden!"

      Fuck... Biden will lose just as suredly as Hillary: mark the prediction.

      --
      --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 27 2019, @05:15PM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 27 2019, @05:15PM (#872014)

        Because fustakrakich is right, the two parties are extensions of corporate / oligarchy America. Biden is the new chosen one, I don't think Hillary was ever in the cards actually, they just needed someone to replace Sanders and even then they had to fuck with the primary.

        Even if it means another 4 yesrs of Trump I won't vote Biden. That is saying something. Of course I'd prefer that conservatives support one of the actual (trigger warning) progressive candidates that want to actually help the average Joe.

        • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Saturday July 27 2019, @10:36PM (2 children)

          by hemocyanin (186) on Saturday July 27 2019, @10:36PM (#872114) Journal

          I'm skeptical of the assertion that HRC was not the oligarchs' anointed one. If she wasn't, why did they bribe-launder via speaking fees (let's be honest -- nobody is going to drop wisdom of any value close to that amount in a private speech)? I think when entities are paying $X00,000 per hour for a short talk and photo op, they're serious about buying that candidate's loyalty.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 28 2019, @06:59PM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 28 2019, @06:59PM (#872376)

            And I'm skeptical you are not a shill.

            I never said HRC was not a corporate political puppet, but dear lord if she doesn't come up EVERY time a valid point is made against conservative shit. The point of the two party system corruption is that both primary candidates are bought off, that is why Sanders was not allowed to make it to the ballot.

            So, you self-aware masters of reality ready to support Sanders and improve the country? Or are you content with having a fascist conservative continue destroying the country as long as it gets your trollish rocks off?

            • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Monday July 29 2019, @12:40AM

              by hemocyanin (186) on Monday July 29 2019, @12:40AM (#872469) Journal

              You said that you aren't sure that HRC was ever actually the oligarchs' choice ("I don't think Hillary was ever in the cards actually, they just needed someone to replace Sanders"). I disagreed with that assertion and gave you a reason why I disagreed (in my view, she was "in the cards" because they wouldn't have bribe-laundered via speech fees as much as they did if they weren't serious about her"). Then you get all trollish. The state of conversation today is pretty abysmal.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 27 2019, @04:24PM (4 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 27 2019, @04:24PM (#871992)

      Man -- how is that you get me nodding along with you and then make some random comment about Jews and turn it all into a WTF? moment. Most Jews (I am one) are like most other people -- we don't have any special political power, we're just trying to get by like anyone else. Jeff Bezos is incredibly powerful for example, but does that translate into power for some white working class stiff barely scraping by? Of course not. Obama is incredibly powerful but does that translate into power for some random black guy just scraping by? Of course not.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 27 2019, @05:11PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 27 2019, @05:11PM (#872011)

        He is a racist piece of shit. Doesn't mean he can't have an occasional good point, but when you see "VLM" you should bust out the salt shaker.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 28 2019, @04:49AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 28 2019, @04:49AM (#872204)

          [...]when you see "VLM" you should bust out the salt shaker.

          Frankly, I don't think there is enough salt in the world to cover his offal. Just sayin'.

      • (Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday July 28 2019, @04:32PM (1 child)

        by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Sunday July 28 2019, @04:32PM (#872323)

        More of a strategy of identity politics thing

        https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/jewish-republicans/ [myjewishlearning.com]

        Over the last several decades, Jewish support for Democratic congressional candidates peaked at 82 percent in 1982

        I was off by about eight percent and it does vary ten or so percent decade by decade, but from a political strategy perspective, their votes and interests are essentially aligned single party with the D party in the USA.

        Given existing alignment where the D party is the Jewish party and the Jews are essentially all supporters of the D party, the neocon era for the R party was pretty much the R party trying to abandon their groups interests in favor of pro-Israel policies to gain, maybe, an additional 20% of the Jewish vote at the cost of giving up on everything the -R party stood for and becoming merely a weak hawkish clone of the D party.

        Its just not worth it. Google says there are about five million Jews in the USA, so by abandoning their base and kissing up to a group that in large will never vote for them anyway no matter what they do, the R party gained maybe half a million, maybe a million votes. At the cost of endless middle east wars and trying to start more, dissension in the ranks leading to the rise of Trump, etc. Its a very expensive way to buy 500K votes.

        The black / Obama example is a good analogy, in that if 95% of blacks vote D party and always will vote and support D party no matter what anyone does or says, there's really nothing to be gained by abandoning R party ideals to pander to that identity politics group if essentially none of them are going to vote for you anyway and the numbers are too low to matter.

        There's nothing you can do as an -R party politician to get votes from Detroit, so the most logical thing to do is ignore their issues completely and try to fight over the 53 percent of white women who voted for Trump. In the upcoming election all the sound bites and yelling and memes are going to be about both parties fighting over white woman voters, nobody (well, nobody who wants to win) is going to care or campaign on black or jew issues.

        Honestly, if the Jews didn't control legacy media and finance, their issues would never get any political support. Can't really blame them for trying to take over legacy media, because given their intense political tendencies as a group, they would be completely marginalized and ignored if they didn't control hollywood and the music biz or whatever.

        If you run identity politics, any group that votes about 0% or 100% for a party will have its issues marginalized into irrelevance. Theoretically if half the Jews or half the blacks voted for each party, their issues would get a heck of a lot more coverage, pandering, and maybe, action, than they get as pets of one party.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 28 2019, @07:05PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 28 2019, @07:05PM (#872380)

          Vile Lewd Man at it again!

          Copypasta from a discussion about Trump's racist remarks, felt very fitting for one such as you.

          He is talking to white nationalists and racists.

          The people who ar denying this are not arguing in good faith.

          Here's an article detailing the tapestry of racism that Trump and his ilk have been promoting for quite some time now.

          https://beta.washingtonpost.com/opinions/is-it-a-coincidence-that-trump-uses-the-language-of-white-supremacy/2018/04/20/01a2c202-44aa-11e8-ad8f-27a8c409298b_story.html?outputType=amp [washingtonpost.com]

          Trump supporters aren't incapable of seeing it, they see it and they like what they are seeing.

                  Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.

          In response to my statements, they have called me a "word-thinker". This is literally a concept born and bred on white nationalist forums.

          They can't hide their power level any longer. They are being exposed and it is quite telling whenever they pull this denialist strategy.