Did Russians Really Penetrate Florida's Election Systems? Maybe (nbcnews.com) 205
Anonymous readers share a report: Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, has reaped the political whirlwind in the 10 days since he proclaimed that Russian hackers had "penetrated" some of his state's county voting systems. The governor of Florida, Rick Scott, a Republican who is running against Nelson for his U.S. Senate seat this fall, has blasted his claim as irresponsible. The top Florida elections official, also a Republican, said he had seen no indication it's true. And The Washington Post weighed in Friday with a 2,717-word fact check that all but accused Nelson -- without evidence -- of making it up. However, three people familiar with the intelligence tell NBC News that there is a classified basis for Nelson's assertion, which he made at a public event after being given information from the leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The extent and seriousness of the threat remains unclear, shrouded for reasons of national security.
[...] Through a spokesman, Nelson declined to comment. At a, Aug. 7 campaign event in Florida's capital, Nelson said Intelligence Committee leaders asked that he "let supervisors of elections in Florida know that Russians are inside our records." He added that Russian hackers "have already penetrated certain counties in the state and they now have free rein to move about." "Either Bill Nelson knows of crucial information the federal government is withholding from Florida election officials, or he is simply making things up," said Scott, who is seeking to take Nelson's Senate seat, which the senator has held since 2001. But Scott, who as governor has a security clearance, has not actually disputed Nelson's assertion. His spokesman said the governor had not personally called anyone at the Department of Homeland Security to seek a classified briefing to get to the bottom of the matter.
[...] Through a spokesman, Nelson declined to comment. At a, Aug. 7 campaign event in Florida's capital, Nelson said Intelligence Committee leaders asked that he "let supervisors of elections in Florida know that Russians are inside our records." He added that Russian hackers "have already penetrated certain counties in the state and they now have free rein to move about." "Either Bill Nelson knows of crucial information the federal government is withholding from Florida election officials, or he is simply making things up," said Scott, who is seeking to take Nelson's Senate seat, which the senator has held since 2001. But Scott, who as governor has a security clearance, has not actually disputed Nelson's assertion. His spokesman said the governor had not personally called anyone at the Department of Homeland Security to seek a classified briefing to get to the bottom of the matter.
"people familiar" (Score:5, Insightful)
Anonymous sources said that there's a basis that can't be disclosed or discussed or refuted. Sounds legit.
Re:"people familiar" (Score:5, Insightful)
And the reason is classified. County-level government has no legally-enforceable national security information classifications.
Elections are explicitly local. National security information classes are explicitly federal.
For crying out loud, it's right in TFS and TFA:
However, three people familiar with the intelligence tell NBC News that there is a classified basis for Nelson's assertion, which he made at a public event after being given information from the leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The extent and seriousness of the threat remains unclear, shrouded for reasons of national security.
NBC claims it has three sources who say the intel is federal, and it is classified at that level. And it is not at all uncommon for the media to keep their sources confidential.
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US methods that are secret and the results stay secret for decades.
Thats what real national security is about.
Real time results getting told to the media are just more domestic party politics.
Re:"people familiar" (Score:4, Insightful)
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It's also not at all uncommon for the media to just parrot whatever the government says uncritically. that's how we ended up in Iraq.
You're not wrong. But I'd say that bogus WMD intel and post-9/11 paranoia were stronger factors.
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USA manipulating Russian elections is a fact: (Score:3, Insightful)
They openly bragged about it in the Washington Post:
How they funnelled $500 million in campaign money to Yeltsin. The fat alcoholic dancing bear that NOBODY liked. Via the IMF. Versus the opponent's $3 million. Using propaganda like "If Zyuganov comes back, the gulag comes back". And whenever he wanted to go to bed in his hotel, "somebody" had cancelled his hotel room. (Very ... mature. --.--)
Yeltsin later appointed a somebody as the new head of government... What was his name again? ... Aah, yes... VLADIMI
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It's a misdirect (Score:2, Insightful)
The "Russians are in our systems" is a nice misdirect that hides what's really going on.
There's no evidence any votes were changed in the last election, but by making unsubstantiated claims and going from hackers to Russian hackers to state-sponsored Russian hackers they can gin up enough fear and outrage to justify censorship aimed at affecting the midterms.
For example, Facebook recently banned [conservative blogger and political candidate] Avi Yemini for ‘Hate Speech’, won't tell him why he wa
Re:It's a misdirect (Score:4, Insightful)
We live in a scary time, reminiscent of the run-up to nazi Germany.
Loves rallies? Check. (and I don't mean WRC.....)
Fans the flames of racial division to fire up their base? Check.
Tars and feathers anyone who dares speak against him? Check.
Thinks he should have final, unfettered control over everything? Check.
Dismisses anything he disagrees with as Fake News? Check.
Who am I speaking of? Hitler or Trump? Or both?
Your point, I'm sad to say, is lost. The current person in the white house reminds *me* of nazi Germany.
You're trying to equate the left with Nazi Germany, but that's not how it looks to me. The right is the one that seems like it's stolen the playbook from 1930's Germany,
Mod me down, whatever.. you think conservatives are the only ones having their speech supressed? Look around, read /. political comments at -1. Try it. It feels like there are two warring factions in /. right now. Perfectly valid points on both sides get modded as -oblivion, Troll.
Whatever. Bring it on. This country will burn no matter who wins, it's destined for a desconstruction and rebuilding. It's inevitable. It's just a matter of time.
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Only ONE side is suppressing people's speech. It's the Left. The Right is fighting hard for free speech, which a few years ago wasn't even mildly controversial.
As for Fake News, they just keep providing more and more evidence. NBCâ(TM)s national affairs analyst John Heilemann said that thereâ(TM)s a decent number of Trump supporters that would be ok with the president killing their parents or grandparents. [redstate.com]
The mainstream media, everyone. Making shit up. How is this not Fake News?
Here's ever
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By running their cars into demonstrating people?
The free speech you are trying to defend is the right rally a mob to kill people you don't like.
Are you talking about charlottesville there? Ever hear of a guy named Dwayne Dixon? No? He's the guy who claims he leveled a gun at James Fields(the guy in the car), and chased him with the gun. That was mere minutes before he drove into that crowd of people. Always more to a story then you think isn't there.
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Hahaha I see you have stumbled upon my fake news site
So findlaw is a fake news site?
Anyways, "Dwayne Dixon" says hi, he's actually an editor for a couple of the sites. I hope you find some of the other made up names as believable as that one :)
Oh I'm sure, which is why you can see the misdemeanor charges against him.
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Loves rallies? Check
You're talking about Obama right?
Fans the flames of racial division to fire up their base? Check.
Sorry which group is using identity politics, and which group is stating that they're standing for "americans."
Tars and feathers anyone who dares speak against him? Check.
Welcome to politics? No really. Welcome to politics.
Thinks he should have final, unfettered control over everything? Check.
Sorry who's that again?
Dismisses anything he disagrees with as Fake News? Check.
Well if you're talking about Trump, it seems he really doesn't like CNN. And well, when you have assholes like Jim Acosta trying to ruin peace summit's, or yelling from the back of a large room then claiming "the president refused to answer" I could understand that.
Who am I speaking of? Hitler or Trump? Or both?
Good question. If you wer
You mistake the source (Score:1)
Black Lives Matter, the Obama presidency, and the Hart-Celler act seem to have done that.
Comical... (Score:2)
Except that facebook is a private entity. Just like Free Republic and TreeHouse and lots of other sites.
But someone...ahem...want to control facebook...and say what they can allow on their site and what they can't.
But try that with FreeRepublic or others...and...
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Why fight it, why not play the game, just play it smart "OHH MY GOD, The Russians an Chinese will HACK all electronic voting, the only way to be SAFE, the only way to be SURE, MANUAL VOTING NOW". I want to make my mark in history, don't YOU, get that pen and get that vote ballot and make your mark, and if you want too, watch it being counted, every single vote, counted by people, as it was made by people and that count video recorded for the records, it is the only way to be SURE and your VOTE SAFE.
Persona
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This is mental. Do you realize just how many people voted in the 2016 Presidential election? 135 MILLION.
Now, I want to just sit back and watch you manually count 135,180,362 individual pieces of paper, without error (oh, I guess that means we need to do a DOUBLE count just to make sure, right?). And oh, by the way, the entire country is awaiting the results, so you'd better complete that massive counting project as fast as possible, no pressure, just the entire fate of the federal government is awaiting yo
Communist violence put Hitler in power (Score:2)
Germans initially supported Hitler because he promised to end the rampant Communist violence in Germany.
If Leftists do not want another Hitler, they should avoid becoming violent Communists, a variety of Leftist (the same people who sent whole families to the guillotine).
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Hitler because he promised to end the rampant Communist violence in Germany.
Which he made up.
Communist violence in Weimar Germany (Score:2)
Re: Okian faggot loves to kiss Putin's dick (Score:2, Insightful)
Trump has put more pressure on the Russians than any President
Trump has refused to implement sanctions, has personally praised Russia and just this week recognized Russia's seizure of Crimea despite Congressional instructions to the contrary. Oh, and he met with KGB agents for intelligence on his opponent.
Oh, and Trump has attacked the EU, Japan, and Australia, tariffs on Mexico and Canada and blamed DC for his costly military parade being cancelled. Good show. I think it is obvious. Trump would side with Cobra, Megatron and Emperor Palpatine.
Maybe you should leav
Dennis Prager is Jewish (Score:2)
Dennis Prager is a Jew who has spoken out against anti-Semitism [dennisprager.com]. In your alternate reality, how does that make him anti-Semitic?
Misdirection (Score:2)
Which ones, and what percentage of the accounts banned were these?
Sounds like a pretext, not a diagnosis/analysis.
Revisionism (Score:2)
Clearly not because it was adored by the counterculture, correlates highly to morally disgusting behavior, and that most stoners are totally useless.
Nope, couldn't be.
Who votes Left? (Score:2)
Minorities and single women vote Leftist, as do people in cities.
Those who could survive a night in the forest alone do not.
None of the stories on Slashdot are news for nerds (Score:4, Insightful)
Amen, politics sucks (Score:1)
And there are paid writers on this site blasting with political bullshit.
This isn't reddit - people here just want tech and will move from this site to any other blogging site pretty quickly.
(I will, if someone recommends a good one)
Re: (Score:2)
Agreed. Endless political drivel everywhere.
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Everything has been politicized. There is little escaping it these days unfortunately. It's ruining everything.
Politics has taken over life (Score:2)
After WW2, everything went Leftist.
Seventy years later, all of it is failing
Our choice is to either be in denial, or to fight it.
There really is no middle ground any longer.
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Our choice is to either be in denial, or to fight it.
Where "it" means ass-hats like you, right?
I'm on Reddit? (Score:2)
Let's keep the discourse useful. That usually means congenial and informative. Your message was neither.
Sign of the times (Score:2)
There is still cool stuff going on in tech of course, but it's all really, really high
Re: (Score:2)
This site sucks now. Bring back CmdrTaco
, Jon Katz,
and the old OpenSource Tech Slashdot days. Endless political drivel now.
There was a lot of drivel back then too!
Bring in Voter ID (Score:5, Insightful)
It's the only way to be sure.
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if citizens matter so much Why is is Ok to make it more difficult for them to vote?
Since it's been proven that there is no real problem with illegals voting, why is it Ok to disenfranchise those precious citizens 'just in case'?
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if citizens matter so much Why is is Ok to make it more difficult for them to vote?
How is it harder for them to vote? No really. EVERY western country besides the US requires ID to vote, some even require national ID cards to vote. Why is it you need ID to get welfare/social assistance, but not to vote. Why do the DNC require ID to vote in their primaries, but claim voter ID is racist.
Since it's been proven that there is no real problem with illegals voting, why is it Ok to disenfranchise those precious citizens 'just in case'?
Considering that some cities and states are now trying to allow illegals to vote in local elections, it seems that we already know that to be false.
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Do those countries then remove the polling places in minority areas? Do they close the offices in minority areas to make it harder for them to get the documentation? Do they have a well documented history of trying so stop blacks from voting? Are they governed by an unpopular minority party holding on to power through disenfranchisement? No!
Yes. Yes. "Other races" so yes. And Yes. You're so damned ignorant of the world it's surprising you don't go into culture shock just reading about it on the internet.
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Non Citizens Are Not Voting, If they are, they are magically leaving no trace of the crime. Accept It.
Proven false by documentation. So it happens - now we can argue over how much fraud is acceptable - but it happens.
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Yep, only way to be sure (Score:1)
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Did you just say that blacks in poor areas are violent? What a racist.
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anything to trigger the libs, eh?
yur so clever!
racist plays dumb when made the butt of a grim joke
news at 11
Progressive discovers they don't like being held to their own standards. Shows that they're not too smart up on the follow up. News at 10, and every 15 minutes.
Russians (Score:4, Insightful)
Weird that Russians are suddenly the boogie man again after Romney was lambasted for asserting the Russians were a threat.
Re: (Score:1)
You forgot the Georgia incident 2008.
Russia is not a military threat (Score:2)
Does it matter? (Score:4, Insightful)
Blue team people (including the news media) will repeat it if it's useful to advance blue team political goals. Red team people will disbelieve it and ridicule it if it's harmful to red team political goals. What really happened is not relevant to the response; this is America.
Re: (Score:2)
We can't fix a problem if we don't talk about it.
We can't talk productively about problems because the people who decide what gets heard only care about their partisan agenda and about sending virtue signals to their tribe. They don't value fact or truth.
Re: (Score:2)
Here are people trying to talk productively...
What's the product of all this productive talk?
no diebold just sucks (Score:2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
We've known about their security problems (Score:2)
Did they really have to? (Score:2)
It's not as if the electoral system in Florida hasn't ALREADY been hacked by the current administration. But now Gov. Nosferatu has a scapegoat.
mnem
If you presented American Politics as a reality TV show, nobody would watch it.
Yet more Neocon waffle (Score:2)
Election systems have to be secured... (Score:4, Insightful)
This has been brought up for decades.
But say there is an issue with registration fraud, voter fraud, polling station security, vote counting systems, etc and suddenly you get some very suspicious push back.
Say you want ID to make sure people aren't running around to different polling stations and pretending to be people they aren't... and you get accused of racism.
Why? Because black people can't get ID cards apparently.
Say you want to secure polling station security, and you'll get the assertion that polling stations where operate under very lax oversight are beyond repute... even though stories of bags full of pre-filled out voter cards exist everywhere.
You say that vote counting systems that often use something like Microsoft Access to tabulate the votes of an entire state are perhaps not the best options... and that the digital security of the records has issues... that the underlying digital voting systems themselves in some states are open to abuse... prove it with an 11 year old busting the system... well, no action.
Frankly, at this point, anyone arguing against this thing can't be doing it in good faith anymore. The overwhelming evidence is that we need reform.
Voter Id is meant to surpress votes (Score:3)
The amount of voter fraud isn't just statistically insignificant it's laughably so. No matter what anyone tells you nobody's busing in illegals to vote for Hilary (that sounds like trolling when I write it, but it was a real conspiracy theory that had to be addressed and
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The ids were offered at no cost to low income people. This was made clear from the start.
Bad faith has to be assumed.
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Nope. Your only possible problem is the expense of the ID and that was addressed many times with these voter ID laws.
Free IDs were offered to low income people as part of the negotiations and that had no impact on people saying it was racism. The position is intellectually bankrupt and either is ignorance of the issue which you're posturing yourself to not be... or it is deceit. Either way... *shrug*
The tribalistic talking points are boring. There are people that want to pervert the ballot box because they
Re: (Score:1)
Free IDs were offered to low income people as part of the negotiations and that had no impact on people saying it was racism.
The problem isn't the financial cost of the ID, it is the actual cost of going through the process of getting it. People at the bottom of the economic ladder in this country often work multiple part time jobs and have little to no control over their own schedule. Government offices by comparison are seldom open much beyond 8-5 M-F. These people would often risk losing their jobs to try to get to these offices, and they wouldn't have any idea how long they would need to be there.
On top of that, what typ
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I'm not interested in your talking points. The entire issue is very obvious.
They were offered free and subsidized and it basically boiled down to the argument that black people can't get ID's never mind that they do get them to drive etc.
It is not supportable and when you make unsupportable arguments it leaves anyone judging the matter to question why you're making objectively unsupportable arguments.
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circular reasoning... the concept was rejected and thus fleshed out plans didn't happen... requiring the fleshed out plans when you rejected the basic concept is nonsense.
Again... Let it go. This argument fools none but the fools.
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Nope, Al Gore and Hillary both whined about the voting process when they didn't win.
Look, the fact that you perceive a threat to your political power by increasing integrity of the ballot box is the smoking gun here.
That you don't see how transparent this is... well... you need to work on your mask. It has some big gaps.
Here is the proof to the point.
I'll let YOU come up with the way voter ID would work. My only condition is that you ensure that the IDs are only issued to people that should be allowed to vo
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Both suggested changing the voting system. Argumentum ad Autism is not a valid rebuttal.
You've proved my point by saying that the details of how it is applied don't matter. So all the ticky tacky this and that on the issue is conceded by you in that as a smoke screen.
We could come up with literally ANY way of applying more reasonable standards to the ballot box and you'd reject them it on one specious pretense or another. Yes, specious... because you were focusing on the ticky tacky when you just conceded t
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argumentum ad autism is not a silly insult. You made a myopic rebuttal that attempted to argue against a forest with a tree.
A trait of autism is being myopic. You made an argument that either suggested you're autistic or think I'm autistic.
I'm not autistic... and whether you are or not... the argument fails on the previously stated basis.
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"we"?
Well, MY "we" thinks you didn't understand what I was saying if you think I was making a medical diagnosis of autism. My "we" thinks you're actually doubling down on yet more myopic arguments... failing to see the forest for the trees. My "we" even explained what "we" were talking about. And yet, your "collective" didn't grasp a pretty simple observation and statement even after it was explained very plainly.
Odd. Your collective might want to get checked out. Consistently not grasping a broader perspec
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I could as easily cite you as confessing to be a pedophile as you could cite me as conceding that the voter ID issue.
As to insults, argumentum ad autism as pointed out to you now three or four times was to address your myopic arguments. If you think it is insulting to point out an argument is myopic then you're probably one of those people that finds anyone that contradicts you to be "triggering".
Frankly, as I said, your position is laughable and unsupportable. I even proved that you don't care about the mi
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I offered you the ability to set how it would work. You proved my point by rejecting it even if you could control all the variables.
That's checkmate.
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... So you've gone from myopic to full retard?
Daring move in your quest to make a bigger ass of yourself with every post.
Definition:
https://www.dictionary.com/bro... [dictionary.com]
"
Ophthalmology. pertaining to or having myopia; nearsighted.
unable or unwilling to act prudently; shortsighted.
lacking tolerance or understanding; narrow-minded.
"
In any case, you're officially the python's black knight. I know I know... Only a flesh wound.
*coconut claps off into the sunset*
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Actually, no.
Signing up for voter registration could provide the ID very easily and the cost could be rendered irrelevant but bundling it with existing ID systems such as driver's licenses etc.
That is you get issued a special version of it that signifies that you're eligible to vote.
Pretty much everyone has a government issued ID of some description. Driver's licenses, personal state issued ID, passports, etc. We can provide a special stamp these that signifies that you're eligible to vote.
The cost of alter
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Notice how even though you spent lots of time throwing out baseless insults... you spent zero time explaining how I misused the word.
Strange. It is almost as you have no argument. Almost... as if...
No, just kidding... you're full of shit and know it.
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Nope, you revealed yourself to be a liar almost immediately. And the cost of linking databases is in fact trivial. I work in that field. I link massive databases with billions of entries in them all the time to databases they've never been linked to before.
Possibly the government has a problem with this because they're often run by idiots and the corrupt. But it isn't hard and we do it all the time.
I say again, GOOD DAY, SIR.
http://heeereswilly.ytmnd.com/ [ytmnd.com]
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if they effectively deny people the ability to vote then you have a supreme court case open and shut.
Let that not distract you from the other elements.
And if you refuse to deal with the obvious need for reform... I can't presume good faith.
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There's nothing about voter ID in that.
Look, your political axe is boring. Its tiresome. Don't bother me with your talking points.
No, the Russians didn't hack the election (Score:2)
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Makes sense. My sister is dead, which is the only sort of woman would wouldn't be throwing up at the sight of AC's genitals.
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Thank you for your comment, Comrade. Mr. Putin will be pleased.
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Closing your eyes, and covering your ears saying "nananananana I cant hear you!" isnt helping you guys look like adults.