One begins to think it’s time to go back to sending notes by carrier pigeon and then swallowing them (not the pigeons; the notes)
Emails are probably not the best way to conduct clandestine business, as Hillary Clinton, David Petraeus, and now Debbie Wasserman Schultz have learned:
The Florida congresswoman’s resignation — under heavy pressure from top Democrats — comes amid the release of thousand of leaked emails showing DNC staffers favoring Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders in the party’s 2016 primary contest.
Her announcement that she was leaving had pro-Sanders supporters cheering during a demonstration in Philadelphia and Donald Trump and other Republicans crowing about the disarray among the Democrats.
I never did quite understand exactly what Wasserman Schultz was so good at, although it was clear she was a loyal party apparatchik who never met a line of propaganda she couldn’t sling with a shamelessly straight face. And I would have thought that damping down Bernie Sanders and favoring Hillary Clinton would have been exactly what the party wanted, although being careless enough to have the emails published on Wikileaks was most definitely a no-no.
The disunity in the GOP is enormous, gargantuan. But once again (just as with the two candidates’ unfavorability ratings) the disunity in the Democratic Party is starting to rival it. And the Trump campaign has wasted no time tying the Wasserman Schultz email problem to the Hillary Clinton email problem, with Trump himself emphasizing the “rigged system” that elevated “Crooked Hillary,” and campaign manager Manafort chiming in:
“Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned over her failure to secure the DNC’s email servers and the rigged system she set up with the Clinton campaign,” he said in a statement. “Now Hillary Clinton should follow Wasserman Schultz’s lead and drop out over her failure to safeguard top secret, classified information both on her unauthorized home server and while traveling abroad.”
Well, that happens to be correct, even if Manafort is the one who said it. But of course I wouldn’t suggest you sit on a hot stove until it happens.
Covering this campaign is like swimming through mud. And “mud” is a euphemism.
I’m glad e-mails are hard to delete – except for IRS e-mails where the experts at clandestine destruction of e-mails live. If these people had acted above board they would have had nothing to worry about when their e-mails were uncovered.
Spies still use old methods, which people then think makes them backwards… kim just let out a huge number station reawakening, and things like the lincolshire poacher number station still run…
on another note… i am glad the dems are getting exposed to how dirty they actually are, after all communists want the world and there is no such thing as morals, so the only thing they actually care about is getting caught which changes their plans and outcomes inconveniently..
too bad those who want communism thinking its great are going to be in a surprise… like the 73% of black women who are afraid… afraid that the republicans will be more racist mongering than dems? or that trump may figure a way to take away their section 8, ebt, etc…
What Dennis said — the emails are only a vehicle for their nastiness. Because they put that nastiness in emails they made public what they were saying to each other, and what politicians have been saying to each other since the very first politician told us he felt our pain.
I find it disappointing they are so stupid about emails, though. Surely they have been told by IT professionals that:
1. They don’t own the words they send electronically, and
2. Other people, not on the address list, will be able to read what they write.
That’s the first lesson of email operations. And I don’t think politicians are too stupid to understand the warning. I think they are too arrogant to believe it. “Who would dare hack into my server?” they think.
Having served in the Foreign Service more than a quarter century, I have lived with the reality that someone else is trying to overhear what I am saying and read what I am writing. These people would have lived with the same reality — after all, they are constantly trying to learn what the opposition party members are saying to each other. They just don’t want to believe it.
And I suppose it is true we all kind of slid into the age of electronic communication without paying much attention to how much different it is from sending notes on paper and then burning the paper.
The really worrisome reality is that the Russians, Chinese, and private hackers all have massive amounts of stolen emails (although “stolen” is hardly appropriate since the emails were not secured). Debbie W-S is the latest victim but there will be more, on both sides of the aisle, until people wake up to the reality of how insecure the medium is. They it will be something else. Technology has outrun our ability to be secure.
While I’m glad the emails were released, I come away very disappointed 🙁
I always supported and gave Cruz the benefit of the doubt. But now I read in Drudge that some of these leaked e-mails were of the Cruz campaign seeking funding from the DRC for a delegate fight.
While those that drink the Cruz kool-aid will not have a problem with this because Cruz is principled and intelligent, I do have a problem. Say what you will about the naivety of Reagan but would he ever even think to ask the Evil Empire for funding for a floor vote in 1976? I think Cruz would be a good Supreme Court pick but as far as supporting him in 2020, I feel like the wife that has just found love letters from my husband to his mistress.
Once the Trust Bridge has been burned and the foundations destroyed, there is no going back. I have doubts about Trump and don’t trust him. But Cruz is dead to me.
And Drudge and Breitbart are reliable sources of information? And they have no agenda or motivation to destroy Cruz?
Oh, but Trump is pure as wind driven snow. No, but that doesn’t matter because he would never cheat on me, to take your adultery metaphor back to your own bedroom.
You say you have doubts and don’t trust Trump. Why would you trust Cruz with a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court? Because under Trump the Supreme Court doesn’t matter?
MikeII Says at 9:54 am
“But now I read in Drudge that some of these leaked e-mails were of the Cruz campaign seeking funding from the DRC for a delegate fight.”
Can you document this allegation please.
Emails for clandestine? Anyone ever heard of dead drops… guess not. But dead drops require actual field work.
Humans have a flaw in their heart. They need a person to hate, someone to personalize, because their heart cannot hate abstract concepts and ideals. They do not hate injustice, they hate a person that is bad or evil. That is what they have learned and that is what they will continue to do.
That human flaw is as pathetic as it is funny. Some will understand true evil through hate, but as I’ve seen of this slice of American humanity now on this globe, most will fail the test and be consumed as fuel for the fire.
Both “binary” choices are unfit for POTUS. Viable 3rd option urgently needed.
“Both “binary” choices are unfit for POTUS. Viable 3rd option urgently needed.” – Eric
Third option exists, but many are waiting for it to be “viable”.
If we all wait for the rest to move, none will, therefore making that option no longer “viable”. It is a self-fulfilling circle of logic, that we need to break out of.
We are no longer in a situation where our “leaders” (actual, or hoped for) will provide us a choice that is going to fit all (or even most of?) our wishes / ideals.
The only question is, are either of the two traditional candidates acceptable?
If they are not, why ignore a third option that may not be the perfect policy choice, but eliminates the major flaws of the other two traditional ones, has governing experience, and is headed in the right direction – smaller government.
The US would work better under a parliamentary system, as funny as that would sound to patriots who hate the Europeans.
In a parliamentary system, majority rules is enforced by combining parties together, to get enough of a vote to declare majority rules.
That allows for fringe parties and dominant major parties, usually 30% for the majors, 10-15% for the minors. Usually a major and a minor forms a coalition. Rarely, does the opposing majors form a coalition together, like they did in Germany twice under their female PM.
So basically the problem people detect with our two party system is that the GOp and Democrats are allies, coalition partners. TO break that, you need a third party or another 30 parties in fact.
Well, here’s the news, Eric.
You are not going to get a “viable 3rd option.” You’ll get something that looks like a libertarian but it will just be a sop to folks like you.
It’s binary. Deal with it.
Amazing that anyone in this day would repeat undocumented allegations regardless of source. Everyone has an agenda; and only some are apparent.
I have a relatively small population of people whom I trust implicitly. Outside of that population, I want to see the evidence with some verification. Although photo shop can be fun, we have reached the point where pictures are no longer trustworthy to the untrained eye; and video editing has become a popular tool of the propagandist.
Reagan said, “trust but verify”. Good advice, but the verify part is not so easy.
When I do business in NYC/NJ I’ve always found they like doing business the old way, in person. For the guys I deal with its not because they are trying to do crooked things, more often than not they are trying to get around their crooked politicians and management that has to work with the crooks. They know that you can discuss things in person with an honesty and safety you could never have on the phone or email. It also helps personal relations. Note this also applies to speaking in public which is the equivalent of phone/email.
Dennis Says:
July 25th, 2016 at 10:42 am
Can you document this allegation please.
CRUZ BEGGED DNC FOR MONEY TO FUND HIS DELEGATE FIGHT IN CLEVELAND!
https://themarshallreport.wordpress.com/2016/07/23/cruz-begged-dnc-for-money-to-fund-his-delegate-fight-in-cleveland/
OM Says:
You say you have doubts and don’t trust Trump. Why would you trust Cruz with a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court?
I still think Cruz knows Constitutional Law and would pull the court back towards the middle. I may not like the man, but he would at least get the 6 lap dog SC justices to defend their positions.
No problem, OM — Cruz has made sure he’ll never be nominated to the Supremes.
‘Covering this campaign is like swimming through mud. And “mud” is a euphemism.’
Why cover it then?
“… favoring Hillary Clinton would have been exactly what the party wanted, although being careless enough to have the emails published on Wikileaks was most definitely a no-no.
Obviously, she didn’t expect her emails to wind up in the possession of Wikileaks, but as “F” described above, ordinary email is inherently insecure:
1) Always assume what you write in email is TOTALLY PUBLIC and might be read by the person(s) you least want to see it.
2) It’s a bit of a pain, but you can send ENCRYPTED EMAIL to provide some level of security (this still does not guard against hacking theft of unencrypted copies remaining on your computer — but you can store copies in an encrypted section of your hard drive).
Richard S and MikeII
The line about Cruz and the Supreme Court has been a diversion from day one. Trumpsters hate him for many reasons (Cuban extraction (not a WASP), “canadian” (not a citizen), constitutional outlook (too outdated, we need action now!), and course the most effective opponent to Sir Donald in the primary). Note that I didn’t go down the road of looks, personality, speaking style and all the other slams by Trumpsters. How or why Sir Donald would appoint someone who cares about limiting the power of the Executive branch is passing insane, and of course Sir Donald has said repeatedly Cruz is a liar and a looser. Sir Donald would appoint a “liar” and a “looser?”
Then of course there are the Democrats who would fiercely oppose Cruz for their statist leftist reasons, as opposed to the statists alt-right Trumpsters.
And then there is the BS assumption that Cruz wants to be on the SCOTUS.
Time will tell how Cruz fares politically. I suspect he is at peace in his soul, integrity and principles matter.
Van:
Fortunately, you don’t get to decide. Put that on your list.
MikeII Says at 2:14 pm
“CRUZ BEGGED DNC FOR MONEY TO FUND HIS DELEGATE FIGHT IN CLEVELAND!
https://themarshallreport.wordpress.com/2016/07/23/cruz-begged-dnc-for-money-to-fund-his-delegate-fight-in-cleveland/”
I checked your link and then went to the link they provided which supposedly supports their claim. I found nothing whatsoever to document their claim. Do you have a date for the e-mail from Cruz to the DNC or a Wikileaks e-mail number to help me confirm that that actually happened? For anyone who is interested, here is the Wikileaks website which the article you linked to used for documentation.
https://wikileaks.org/dnc-emails/?q=cruz&mfrom=&mto=&title=¬itle=&date_from=&date_to=&nofrom=¬o=&count=50&sort=0#searchresult
I never did quite understand exactly what Wasserman Schultz was so good at, although it was clear she was a loyal party apparatchik who never met a line of propaganda she couldn’t sling with a shamelessly straight face.
Despite the enjoyment at seeing the obnoxious Wasserman Schultz get booted out the door, it’s probably a slightly bad thing — since having such a flamboyantly loathsome person as the “face of Democratic party” couldn’t have been doing them any good.
Dennis:
Keep after it man! As they say “a lie travels around the world before truth get’s it’s boots on.”
Dennis,
I did the same. Nothing about Cruz. I am not wading through 20,000 emails at wikileaks to search for a message proving the trumpian hordes fantasy. I will say one thing for them, their loyalty to their orange lord is beyond question. They believe him when he says x+y = z and when he says one hour later that x+y does not equal z and anyone who says he said x+y = z are lying liars, it somehow makes perfect sense to them.
We have seen this phenomenon time and time again. “What a long strange trip its been.” And, its guaranteed to become ever stranger.
Yeah, I too have always found Wasserman to be a particularly loathsome ‘ piece of work’. Obviously, it’s a job requirement.
Arrogance, hubris and the ‘purity’ of their cause… Plus a dependence upon a complicit media.
parker Says at 4:54 pm
“Dennis,
I did the same. Nothing about Cruz. I am not wading through 20,000 emails at wikileaks to search for a message proving the trumpian hordes fantasy.”
The site I linked to has a search engine. It is quite easy to search the messages about Cruz sorted by dates. Once he dropped out of the race understandably there is little mention of him. During the time period in which Cruz supposedly contacted the DNC they are busy trashing him and accusing him of him of campaign finance irregularities. There is nothing that I could find about any efforts to collaborate.
“I never did quite understand exactly what Wasserman Schultz was so good at”
It’s not that she’s good at anything — it’s just that they wanted her on their side. DWS’ enemies run the risk of turning to stone if they look upon her face.
Dennis,
Thank you, your search results confirm what I already knew. Cruz is not a messiah, but he does have integrity and would never stoop so low, unlike trumpians.
if pigeons are used, people will just go back to using hawks/falcons….
tdgraton,
Squab be fine eating.
Most people don’t understand that e-mail is like the military mail during war time – subject to being read by others without your permission. Of course the military had good reasons for reading and censoring mail during time of war. It appears that we should become more paranoid. At least more circumspect about what we say and how we say it.
Nothing that’s been revealed about the DNC in these e-mails surprises me. Most people sensed they were working for HRC. This just confirms the suspicions.
What can be said about this hacked email dump and maybe the other recent one from Hillary’s tenure as SOS is it’s about time that the operations of the left are being exposed to the light. If it’s being done by the Russians to benefit Trump (and Putin), that sucks though and I’d be concerned about it even if they were trying to help Cruz.
When do we get the hacked emails/leaks/whistleblowing about Fast & Furious, the IRS/administration interaction vs the Tea Party, Obama’s college admission documents and transcripts, the aministration’s interactions with CAIR, OCCUPY, #BLM, La Raza (et al), the coordination between the DOJ/EPA and environmental orgs on lawsuits and settlements, etc, etc, ad infinitum, ad nauseum? It takes years of hard slogging by House committees and private conservative org FOIAs before the heavily redacted, carefully selected data (or what remains after the pandemic of hard-drive crashes and “accidental” mass erasures) begins to slowly trickle out of the most transparent government in the history of the entire freakin’ multiverse.
Is the bureaucracy so heavily tilted left now that patriotic, honorable, concerned people are no longer employed by our government, like the “unbiased”, “objective” “news” media and the professoriate? Has the open war on whistleblowers cowed the few that remain?
Geokstr:
Very good. Selective release of information and misinformation that seems to benefit Trump, and Putin? Ironic, that the behavior patterns of Democrats in government established decades ago could be HRC’s undoing, because the Russians are more ruthless than they are, and are more ruthless than Trump.
The EPA secretary of the other Clinton used her own personal email to hide her collusion with environmental groups. She got caught eventually, but got away with it, no consequences. So when Obama’s EPA head (pre Jenny MaCarthy) did the same thing what happened? Nothing to see move along…..
2) It’s a bit of a pain, but you can send ENCRYPTED EMAIL to provide some level of security (this still does not guard against hacking theft of unencrypted copies remaining on your computer – but you can store copies in an encrypted section of your hard drive).
The feds and intel services already have the encryption keys to them. The ones they don’t have, went out of business pretty quickly.
Google and Yahoo gave over their encryption keys to the US, which means anyone with access to the US data servers will also have them. That wouldn’t be a problem except the feds are swiss cheese when it comes to leaks.
You’ll get something that looks like a libertarian but it will just be a sop to folks like you.
To Van, I would say that Democrat 70 yo Trum is a sop to Americans who lacked the willpower and faith to fix their own country, before it came to this. Shrugs. It’s what people deserve, not necessarily what they prayed that they deserved.
As for the Demon mails, it seems like they were cross communicating on the delegate fight between Cruz and Trump. But it’s unlikely they cared about it, except to instigate one, as it would benefit the DNC. The DNC almost always talks about Republican infighting, it’s sort of one of their brand propaganda memes by now. Then they recommend “what will be good for Republicans is for them to do…”
It appears that we should become more paranoid. At least more circumspect about what we say and how we say it.
A little too late for that now. If a person didn’t erase their net tracks from 2001… well, they’ll have to buy some helpful advice packages if they want to start now.