Tillerson to be SOS

[Upchurch]

Speaking to a group of donors in Manhattan, Mrs. Clinton said that Mr. Putin, the Russian president, had never forgiven her for the accusation she made in 2011, when she was secretary of state, that parliamentary elections his country held that year were rigged.

“Putin publicly blamed me for the outpouring of outrage by his own people, and that is the direct line between what he said back then and what he did in this election,” Mrs. Clinton said.

(source)

 

[cmikes]

Yes, I'm sure in Hillary Clinton's own headcanon, her incisive rhetoric and biting commentary has caused poor old Vlad many sleepless nights as he quaked in his boots and swore revenge. I'm just skeptical whether her beliefs reflect reality.


Bonus question, would a former Secretary of State qualify as "an unnamed intelligence official"?

 

[Upchurch]

Argument from incredulity, in spite of evidence presented. Here's more.

Welcome to the post-factual world, where evidence is less important than propaganda. "We've always been at war with Eurasia."

 

[cmikes]

Argument from incredulity, in spite of evidence presented. Here's more.

Welcome to the post-factual world, where evidence is less important than propaganda. "We've always been at war with Eurasia."

Ah, condescending dismissal when left without an argument, it wouldn't be a conversation with a leftist without it.

Let's be clear, I'm not disputing any of the facts of Russians hacking the DNC and various other Democratic officials. So your "post-factual" sneer has no bearing on my position. The only thing I'm disputing is the Democratic meme that Putin decided to cause trouble during the US election solely because of his fear of a Clinton presidency. I've seen enough evidence to decide that, yes, Russian hackers were trying to disrupt the US election. Did that direction come directly from Putin? Maybe, maybe not, the evidence is much less clear on that point. If anything, since most of the released e-mails are about the DNC's attempt to bump Bernie Sanders off in order to more easily anoint Hillary Clinton, it seems they may have been trying to help Sanders more than Trump.

We also have no idea if the Russians were trying to hack Republican officials in order to disrupt that side of the election. Either the RNC has better online security than the DNC does, or maybe, just maybe, the fact that the Republicans weren't trying to corruptly screw over certain candidates so that their Chosen One would win had something to do with it. After all, it was the Democratic Party that was being corrupt, the hackers just exposed it. It might also just be that aides at the RNC were smart enough not to fall for the phishing scams that Podesta and people at the DNC fell for.

If anything, though, as a Libertarian that leans conservative, I'm kind of glad that Clinton and the Democrats are still trotting various excuses out for losing the election. As long as they refuse to deal with the real problems with their candidates and positions, it just makes it less likely that they'll have any future success.

 

[Upchurch]

Let's be clear, I'm not disputing any of the facts of Russians hacking the DNC and various other Democratic officials. So your "post-factual" sneer has no bearing on my position. The only thing I'm disputing is the Democratic meme that Putin decided to cause trouble during the US election solely because of his fear of a Clinton presidency.

You say this isn't a post-factual world, and then you immediately mischaracterize what the CIA and FBI are saying as a Democratic meme. My point stands.

 

[cmikes]

You say this isn't a post-factual world, and then you immediately mischaracterize what the CIA and FBI are saying as a Democratic meme. My point stands.

My points also stand. I do read information other than Democratic Party press releases.