Russian Hacking

Much has been written and discussed about the alleged Russian Hacking of our latest election.

It is sad that both sides seem to be cherry-picking only the facts that they want to see.

Donald Trump is correct that the hacking of the DNC could have been done by anybody, including a 400 pound guy sitting on his bed.  However, just because it could have been done by somebody other than Russia does not mean that it was done by somebody other than Russia.  When all of our intelligence agencies agree that the evidence clearly shows it WAS Russia, then I accept that conclusion. Trump is showing disrespect to the thousands of dedicated members of our intelligence community and exposing his own ignorance in the process when he publicly questions them.

But let’s keep in mind that Russia has not even been accused of actually tampering with our physical voting process. That definitely would be considered an Act of War.  No, all the intelligent shows is that Russia spread false Anti-Hillary propaganda and hacked into the DNC’s email. The emails that it stole and released were embarrassing to some extent, but they revealed no major issues that were not already public. 

So, did Russia affect the outcome of our election?   Democrats say Yes, and Trump says No.  There is no way to know for sure without actually questioning every single voter.  

But, HERE IS THE THING:  Any effect that Russia had on the election is because the American People were stupid enough to fall for it.  It sickens me that so many Americans get their news from Memes, sound bites, and just the headlines.  Many Americans no longer have a clue as to what even the minimum standards of journalism should be.  They don’t even read that actual articles.  For if they did, they would ignore most of the fake news sites, and certainly would know better than to share them again and again. 

It is truly a sad state of affairs, and actually quite terrifying, to think that the newspapers that DO follow good journalistic standards and report real news that can be backed up with actual facts have been so vilified by those with their own agendas that millions of American have actually lost trust in the few remaining institutions that actually are trustworthy.

I am proud that we the right to freedoms of speech and the press here in America.   But with great rights comes great responsibilities.  Just because we have the right to say whatever we want, or to share every meme that we see, does not mean that we should.  All of us need to step back, THINK, and do a little bit of research before sharing or repeating ANYTHING we see on social media.

For, if we had done that, we would not be sitting here today wondering if Russia was successful or not. 

HERE'S THE BOTTOM LINE:

YES, the Russians hacked the DNC’s emails.   YES, the Russians attempted to influence our political process.   YES, it was wrong of them to do that. 

NO, the Russians did NOT actually influence our election.  Any effects on our election we did that OURSELVES.

DEAR DONALD:  Stop saying otherwise.  You just make yourself look like Putin’s puppet.  And stop blaming the DNC for sloppy security.  That’s like blaming the victim after a rape.  And stop thinking that the RNC was not hacked as well.  Just because Russia did not release RNC emails does not mean they don’t have them.  

AND DONALD: It was revealed several months ago that your own email servers used in the Trump Organization are still running Windows Server 2003, which has been obsolete for 8 years, and has been completed unsupported for the past two years.  It is NOT considered a secure operating system anymore.  People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.  In the case of Trump Tower, that can be taken quite literally.