Homeland Security Just Took A Year To Tell States They Got Hacked By Russia. THEY WERE ON A BREAK.
If we didn't know better, we might just think the Trump administration was trying to hide the extent of Russian hacking in the 2016 election. Yesterday , the Department of Homeland Security told elections officials in 21 states that Russian hackers had attempted to breach their voting systems in the run up to the 2016 election. DHS waited an entire year after the attacks took place to tell the states, and they left it up to local officials to disclose whether and to what extent they'd been hacked. Yours is not to question the voting system! Just watch your Fox News, show up with your drivers license, and stand in that line come November. AND BE GRATEFUL THAT THEY LET YOU DO THAT!
We turn now to Chris Cillizza for trenchant commentary.
OR NOT.
Let's just see if we have our timeline right. A little tick tock, as the kids might say.
Summer 2016: Russian hackers stage waves of attacks on American voting systems, targeting a reported 39 states, according to Bloomberg .
July 2016: Wikilieaks publishes stolen DNC emails. Julian Assange pinky swears he didn't get them from Russians.
Also July 2016: CIA gets involved at the highest levels.
July 27, 2016: Donald Trump urges Russia to hack Hillary Clinton and determine if she's hiding any emails. As one does.
August 2016: Obama learns of "Vladimir Putin’s direct involvement in a cyber campaign to disrupt and discredit the U.S. presidential race" and receives first confirmation that hackers are trying to penetrate electoral systems across the country.
August 15, 2016: DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson has conference call on Russian hacking, Republicans refuse to go along with enquiry. Mitch McConnell blocks disclosure or efforts to resist hacking, saying he doubts the underlying intelligence.
Also August, 2016: CIA Director John Brennan calls Russian counterpart and tells him to stop trying to hack the American election.
October 7, 2016: DNI James Clapper and DHS head Jeh Johnson announce conclusively that Russians are trying to hack American election. Americans are too busy with the Access Hollywood Pussygrabbing video release that day to notice. Thanks,
Jor-ElObama!October and November 2016: Russians pay in rubles for Facebook ads microtargeting voters in swing states. Thanks,
JudasMark Zuckerberg!November 8, 2016: Donald Trump wins election. One small step for man, one great leap forward for the Doomsday Clock.
Don't get us wrong, we're glad that you guys at DHS finally got around to acknowledging what everyone knows. BUT WHAT THE HELL TOOK YOU SO LONG? Were you perhaps trying to prop up the ego of one demented old loon who is so sensitive about his illegitimate win that his first official act was to try to force the National Park Service to lie about the crowd size at his inauguration? And also? WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OTHER EIGHTEEN HACKED STATES?
The CIA, FBI, DNI and NSA all agree that Russians hacked our election. But Commander Twitter Fingers is still denying it.
The Russia hoax continues, now it's ads on Facebook. What about the totally biased and dishonest Media coverage in favor of Crooked Hillary?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 22, 2017
Owls even when totally wild can be oddly unafraid of humans. When they were still in my care, they loved to look me in the eye, be stroked, go to sleep perched on my shoulder. The one who stuck around (I like to think the other settled elsewhere, territorial thing, maybe)- he would tap at my kitchen window 'til I'd come out with a treat, then stay for a bit, but he was a grown-up and not so affectionate. (But check out, on Youtube: Malay eagle-owl evil or cute?)I named my little guys Kto and Kogo, after Lenin's question, "Kto kogo?" literally, "Who whom" meaning something like "Who will do, and who done to?" Hoo and Hoom for short. Though they didn't hoot, or screech; they sounded more like a rusty hinge.The little bug-eating bats don't make pets, exactly, but build a roost and they will come. Fruit bats, however, can be tamed. They will light on you and eat figs from your fingers- so I hear. But house pet, not so much.
Everyone knows it.