monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Dude, I don’t ignore it, it just hasn’t been proven to me.

I wouldn’t have a problem believing it otherwise. It’s not like I’m the Russian. I readily acknowledge spying and attempts by governments to affect elections. Hell, my own government does it on the regular.

I just need proof...

Well-stated.

Okay then... What type of evidence would convince you? :-)

Does that mean, that response is proof enough for you?

I believe she was addressing Finn's most recent post. I too believe that he stated his case clearly and well in his post. However I don't consider it itself to have been "proof" of anything, and I doubt that Finn does either. He stated his opinion and interpretation of the cited events, and did so very well. That's it.

The pervasive intolerance for dissent from the rather odd orthodoxy endlessly proclaimed on this thread ( mostly by apparently bored folks from Canada and Europe) degrades the conversations here significantly..

Finn wrote:

Lash wrote

I guess Finn has other evidence which Lash finds credible. Wonder where he got it and why is it more credible than our own US intelligence agencies of which Lash and Trump find not credible?

So you think Lash was just commenting on the eloquence of Finn's opinion rather than the substance of his post wherein he believes in the evidence of Russian interfering in US elections? Ok. On that note, the President can't obstruct justice because he is the President.

Hard to grasp the meaning of your somewhat incoherent post. Nations of every kind have attempted to influence the policies and actions of other nations throughout modern history. There is nothing whatever new in that aspect of the contemporary furor. The British did far more in that area, and far more actively, in attempting to get our active involvement in both WWI and WWII than the stuff Russia has been accused of. Russia also has a long Soviet history of efforts to sow discord in the internal affairs of rivals, and as a former KGB functionary, Putin himself was an active part of such efforts.

The evidence of corruption within the supposedly sacred intelligence community by the Obama administration is substantial and persuasive: hardly an authority on which to rest your case.

Shades of Richard Milhous Nixon.

Perhaps it is incoherent to you because you haven't followed along the progression of posts which led up Walter's post. Never mind.

I thought he stated his views well, hence the term...

While some countries have long interfered in the internal policies of other countries, especially with regard to helping a friendlier party or candidate achieve victory, I think it's inaccurate to say there is "nothing whatever new" in the current situation. The big difference is electronic communication in general and social media in particular. It has never been easier to enlist virtual armies of hackers and trolls, disseminate misinformation on such a wide scale, hide and obscure its origin, and accomplish all this for little money and with little risk.

(mostly by bored Canadians...). 😀

Interesting viewpoint from a man who claims to be retired Navy or at least former Navy. Shining example of patriotism, he actually alleges that the British are more harmful than the freaking Russians......

I agree fully. Techniques change over time, though the underlying motives remain. However I don't perceive that the current furor is over technique per se. Indeed it appears to be all about supposed evil intent : something which I find quite odd in view of the many accommodations offered to Russia by the previous Administration. I think it more likely that the Russians were merely attempting to opportunistically sow discord, and the Democrats, through their own misdeeds, offered them several opportunities to do so. They're indignant now, still in denial, and casting about to place blame on others and quell the sting of their defeats. Poor Hillary still won't get off the stage. Sad.

'Go get 'em, Roy': Trump backs accused child molester Moore for Senate

Well you gotta say this about our dear buddy Finn- he never misses an opportunity to prove he's a horse's ass.

Your trust must comfort you.

I'm hoping that one way or the other it is wrapped up very soon.

As for Obama and Israel, you reflexively resort to an attempt at mitigation. Israel interfering in US politics does not provide moral support for the US to interfere in theirs. It's either wrong or it's not.

I would argue that assuming there is any limit to interference, the fact that your target was an ally should be a very big one. I would also argue that interfering in an ally's election is more perfidious than doing the same in an adversary's.

It is in the strategic interests of the US to have a weak Russia, and I can not be surer that given the opportunity, our government does all it can to make this a reality. They should. It is in the strategic interest of Russia (not to mention China, Iran and a bunch of other nations) for there to be a weak US, and yet now lefties couldn't be more outraged that Russia's government takes whatever opportunities, it is offered, to make it so. This embrace of American Exceptionalism, hawkish nationalism and the credo "My country right or wrong!" might be welcome if it wasn't entirely phony. When Russia "meddled" in the Middle East and invaded the sovereign state of Ukraine, the US and its allies were weakened far more than by idiotic Facebook memes who were liked only by people who would have chewed off their arm before voting for HRC. Where though were the lefty Hawks then? They might have been collected in a single person: HRC, and that was another reason a good many peeled off from her campaign. (Susan Sarandon recently stated that if HRC was president, the US would be at war. From what I can tell she also shares the Lash view on Russian Interference)

Despite what the American Left might like to think about Obama's motives for interfering in the Israeli election they were nothing more than he wanted a more cooperative (read compliant) Israeli government.That may have been fine if you shared his vision of a diminished Israel and an independent Palestinian state, but to assume that such a vision involved sight gifted by God, while the views of all of the Israelis who reject it (enough BTW to foil his meddling) are somehow evidence of evil is supremely arrogant, and, of course, hypocritical for holders of an ideology that contends that such black & white descriptions are evidence of an unsophisticated mind and aggressive intolerance.

Americans and, principly their elected representatives, are doing a fine job of meeting Putin's goal entirely without his help. Putin didn't introduce corruption into our system, he didn't split the nation ideologically in half, if he did anything, it was to provide one side of the partisan divide with a rallying cry (real or false) "TRUMP COLLUDED WITH RUSSIA!"

Considering that there is zero evidence of Russia actually manipulating voting results, his gift to our warring factions wasn't Trump, it was suspicion of Trump. That suspicion has hurt Trump and the Right, and it has helped the Left. I'm quite sure that plenty of leftie wags have toasted Putin at one or more DC cocktail parties. Unable to beat him at the polls, Putin has possibly given them an opportunity to bring the oaf down. When you think about what a removal of Trump from office will do to the political environment in this country, you can certainly imagine that a crafty KGB fox like Putin had it mind from the beginning. Who knows if it's the case, but I certainly suspect he is smiling quite a lot these days in the Kremlin.

The only difference between Putin's interference and Obama's is that you approve of the one (despite it not working) and not the other.

It is nice though to see a Frenchman hold America and it's political system in such high esteem that he wants it protected from its adversaries.