Whenever I accidentally alight upon a news channel these days and hear the inescapable “Russia, Russians, Russian ties, the Russian connection, investigating the ties with Russia”, I immediately switch the channel. I’ve known all this for a year and a half, and it disgusts me beyond belief to see this ridiculous spectacle of “OMG, we are just finding out these shocking news!”
Obama admin scrambled to preserve evidence of meetings between Russian officials and Trump associates: NYT
Obama Administration Rushed to Preserve Intelligence of Russian Election Hacking
This is nothing short of ridiculous. Why did they “scramble” and “rush” when all this was obvious for such a long time? Why was all this kept secret until so long after the election? All these news items do is make Obama look pathetic.
Enough rushing and scrambling already. Why wasn’t anybody analyzing information as it appeared? Look at how well Republicans blew up the emails hoax. And Democrats failed to use something like this? For so long?
Fuck them.
Clarissa's Blog 
If the Obama administration had released anything about this during the election campaign, the RepubEnrons would have spun it as playing politics. It would have backfired, guaranteeing a Clinton loss. It seems to have been a miscalculation.
You knew this, but those of us who do not read Russian only had suspicions.
LikeLike
There should have been people who read Russian and who follow the events working in the administration.
LikeLike
“There should have been people who read Russian and who follow the events working in the administration.”
There were, of course. But releasing any information would have been condemned as partisan which would have done a lot of damage to Democrats. Obama spoke with McConnell about the possibility of a joint release of information on Russian influence. McConnell said no, and declared that any such release would be a partisan use of intelligence information.
LikeLike
“There were, of course. But releasing any information would have been condemned as partisan which would have done a lot of damage to Democrats.”
LikeLike
“It’s better to be partisan than a habitual, helpless loser.”
This is true, of course. It is, however, likely that the loss would have been more dramatic if an accusation of “improper” partisanship had stuck. And it seems likely that there are going to be Democratic gains in upcoming Congressional and gubernatorial elections.
LikeLike
Meanwhile, in Europe:
EU Parliament lifts Le Pen immunity over gruesome tweets
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4929989,00.html
Also, I think this case is very interesting from pov of free speech, the (lack of separation between) religion and state, and more:
Arab drivers demand action over Muhammad insult
The drivers are demanding the company fire an employee after he allegedly made racist comments about the prophet; Metropoline CEO tells employees: ‘We will have zero tolerance for racial abuse.’
…
Drivers are threatening to disrupt transportation operations within the company if their demands are not met. In the meantime, management has decided to temporarily suspend the dispatcher until the end of a hearing and investigation into the matter.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4930066,00.html
LikeLike