TICKLING THE BEAR

Vladimir Putin said that Russian intelligence did not hack the DNC servers. Everyone in the MSM is assuming that Putin is wrong. They wanted Donald Trump to call Putin a liar. Apparently being rude to Putin is worth risking war with a nuclear power.

Trump said that while he respected our intelligence, Putin flat out denied being involved. The problem for Trump is that Putin has a point, neither the FBI nor any of our intelligence agencies EVER examined the DNC server. The DNC has never provided access to those servers. The only data was obtained from an analysis by CrowdStrike. CrowdStrike was hired by the DNC. It allegedly has strong connections with Hillary Clinton.

On at least on one other occasion, CrowdStrike produced analysis that was patently wrong. On December 22, 2016 CrowdStrike published an article titled: USE OF FANCY BEAR ANDROID MALWARE IN TRACKING OF UKRAINIAN FIELD ARTILLERY UNITS.

https://www.crowdstrike.com/wp-content/brochures/FancyBearTracksUkrainianArtillery.pdf

At the time, CrowdStrike’s analysis of the DNC server was being challenged by some very capable cyber experts. CrowdStrike issued this report to support its opinion that Russia hacked the DNC servers. Dimitri Alpervotich said that in both hacks, the DNC and the Ukraine, the company found malware used by “Fancy Bear.” A group with ties to Russian intelligence.

CrowdStrike was forced to retract much of that report because it was using data provided by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). IISS confronted CrowdStrike regarding material misrepresentation.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-28/something-stinks-here-crowdstrike-revises-retracts-parts-explosive-russian-hacking-r

There is no doubt that Russian are hacking us all the time and it would be naïve to think they didn’t continue this during the 2016 election. They do this every election. The difference here is that the liberal left is claiming a vast right-wing conspiracy between Trump and Putin because they didn’t like the results of an election. Hillary, as we all know, is famous for blaming everything on a vast right-wing conspiracy. The result is that both Trump and by association Putin, have been thrown under the bus on a nightly basis. Putin, as well as Trump, is sick of this. Remember that Obama put sanctions on Russia just before the inauguration because of alleged Russian hacking.

The U.S. also have a very long history of interfering with elections in other countries. Even the Washington Post noticed this:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/10/13/the-long-history-of-the-u-s-interfering-with-elections-elsewhere/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.44a5a93595a2

Russia did try to influence our elections, by sending in spies to get close to Hillary Clinton. This was documented and then covered up. The FBI captured several spies and literally sent them home before anyone got a chance to interview them.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/fbi-discovered-russian-spies-targeting-hillary-clinton-when-she-was-secretary-of-state

Even during the 2016 election there was more evidence of the Clinton campaign colluding with Russia than the Trump campaign. It was the Clinton Foundation that was getting millions in donations. It was Bill Clinton who was being paid $500,000 for a speech. It was the Clinton Campaign that got the Russia dossier from Russia and used it during the election. I don’t think Putin is upset that we are accusing him of messing with us, he is insulted that we would accuse him of being so patently stupid. Seriously, does anyone think Putin thought he could change election results by unleashing 12 guys in their underwear? That is why he told Chris Wallace the indictment by the FBI was a joke. It is a joke. If that operation had any connection with Russia it was probably with the Russia version of Peter Strzok.

Everyone is horrified that Trump is not going all in on the estimates of U.S. Intelligence. It is not like our intelligence services have a spotless record. Remember that our intelligence services told George W. Bush that it was a slam dunk that Saddam Hussein had large stockpiles of WMD. They were positive, but they were wrong. Our intelligence communities work very hard, but they are hardly perfect. When you combine that with the problems noted previously and the fact that this investigation was run by, you guessed it; Peter Strzok, it would be a far more serious problem if Trump did take this at face value.

Anything Trump did regarding Putin was destined to be criticized. Incredibly after Hillary famously gave Russia a red rest button the liberal left now thinks it is Trump who is soft on Putin. That is absurd. I suspect that the real conversation between Trump and Putin went something like this. “Mr. Putin, please don’t confuse me with the silly people who pretended to be tough while secretly offering you deals. I don’t work that way. I am here to protect the interest of my country and unlike them I will do whatever it takes to do that. If you mess with me, our response won’t be limited to silly hysterical anchors on CNN. On the other hand, if you want to have a better relationship that is up to you.”

That is the way Donald Trump deals with everyone else.

But the real problem is that the hysteria in the press has the potential for Putin to underestimate Trump. That would seriously jeopardize our national security. Those people currently spouting off publicly about how Putin overwhelmed Trump are either to blinded by politics to notice or too self-serving to care about the real impact on national security. There is zero chance this will result in Trump being impeached or leaving office. Unfortunately, the more likely outcome is a war resulting from Putin or someone else underestimating our resolve. That is why Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, he did not think George H.W. Bush would do anything about it. He was wrong. It is why North Korea invaded South Korea. Stalin did not think that Harry Truman would do anything about it. He also was wrong. In both cases, underestimating a U.S. President resulted in a destructive war. That is far too high a price to pay for irrational and self-serving politicians.

TDM