Rick Moen via luv-talk wrote:
I should stress that this was not a Russian-directed effort only, in that there was massive help from domestic traitors, starting with a covert data analytics firm named Cambridge Analytica founded by far-right lunatic billionaire Robert Mercer and staffed by firebrand Steve Bannon.
Is it fair to describe Cambridge Analytica as domestic (i.e. USian)? My understanding is/was that they are London-based and mostly UKians, who rent out their leet math skillz to anyone who wants some agitprop and is rich enough to afford their fees. i.e. basically a more advanced evolution of the SEO lifeform.
My point is: It wasn't just the Russians, but also it required key help, both covert and overt, from Republicans so devoted to power that they were willing to commit treason with a foreigh power to perpetuate it. They are still the main real problem, to this day.
No arguments here.
Without them, the Russians would have remained, as Senator McCain mockingly called them in 2014, 'a gas [petrol] station masquerading as a country'.
USA has enough energy reserves to be able to say that, but I think Germany has to be a bit more circumspect :-) https://energydesk.carto.com/viz/b4da69b6-df45-11e3-96d5-0e10bcd91c2b/public... https://atlas.cid.harvard.edu isn't working for me right now, but it is a good way to compare countries import/export markets --- last time I looked, Russia was the only country I could find with WORSE export diversity than Australia.
(The Toddler, too, par excellence, is a traitor, not to mention so extremely self-absorbed that he refuses to defend his own country if doing so might in any way suggest illegitimacy in how he entered office.)
Quick litmus test: Donald Trump or Andrew Jackson for worst US president?