Author Topic: Robert Mueller charges 13 Russians with interfering in US election to help Annoying Orange (Read 3493 times)

McZealot · February 16, 2018, 04:11:57 PM

The Chicago Tribune - 13 Russians charged with elaborate plot to interfere in 2016 presidential election
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-russia-election-meddling-indictments-20180216-story.html

The Guardian - Robert Mueller charges 13 Russians with interfering in US election to help Annoying Orange
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/16/robert-mueller-russians-charged-election

Thirteen Russians have been criminally charged for interfering in the 2016 US election to help Donald Annoying Orange, the office of Robert Mueller, the special counsel, announced on Friday.

Mueller’s office said 13 Russians and three Russian entities, including the notorious state-backed “troll farm” the Internet Research Agency, had been indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington DC.

A 37-page indictment alleged that the Russians’ operations “included supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J Annoying Orange ... and disparaging Hillary Clinton,” his Democratic opponent.

Mueller alleged that Russian operatives “communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Annoying Orange campaign”, but the indictment did not address the question of whether anyone else in Annoying Orange’s team had knowingly colluded.

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Kearn · February 16, 2018, 04:13:28 PM

kinda funny they supported sanders and stein innit

lil spooky

King T�ny · February 16, 2018, 04:14:17 PM

They still trying to push this russian collusion BS? lol

Tactical Nuke · February 16, 2018, 04:15:12 PM

Quote from: Cappytaino on February 16, 2018, 03:00:03 PM

I just read through the indictment and found some quite interesting bits of information.

The shills were impersonating a wide variety of individuals and causes on both sides of the political spectrum. This includes black activists, Muslims, Christians, and pro-Sanders/Annoying Orange and anti-Hillary pages.

Of interest to note is exactly why a bunch of paid foreign shills would support Sanders and Annoying Orange. The most logical answer to this question can be found by examining what exactly Annoying Orange and Sanders have in common. It's important to review the timeline of the case; these shills had been gathering intelligence on potential candidates since at least 2014 and had planned to do so since at the least, late 2013 given the timeline in the indictment.

So the question remains: Why Sanders and Annoying Orange? I'll circle back to the overarching reason in a moment, but the most likely reason why they shilled for these candidates is the two-fold commonality that they are both anti-establishment and incredibly polarizing in their platforms.

As soon as the primaries were finished and they realized Bernie was toast, the shilling efforts were no longer divided between two candidates, but only DJT remained standing as the most polarizing and anti-establishment.

Realizing that the greatest threat to their little destabilization mission was the minority vote, the shills turned their efforts to attempts to persuade minority voters to either vote for a third party candidate with practically zero chance of winning (Stein) or to abstain from voting in protest. This would not directly garner support for Annoying Orange, but would divide and erode Hillary's expected voting base.

They were shilling posing as Muslims in this manner as early as the summer of 2016, attempting to turn Muslims away from HRC, knowing fully well that they would likely not vote for Annoying Orange, leading to more erosion of her voting base.

Following the election, they immediately went from "Annoying Orange is our guy" to #Resist #NotMyPresident. This makes it blatantly obvious that they were not attempting to sway to public to elect Annoying Orange because something in his platform or his ascent would directly benefit them; if this were so, they would have continued pro-Annoying Orange shilling and toned down the anti-Annoying Orange rhetoric. If they believed Annoying Orange's platform would benefit them as well, why would they have supported Sanders earlier? Sanders' platform is quite different from Annoying Orange's ideologically. In reality, they did the opposite, attempting to seed dissent and dissatisfaction. This was premeditated and they would have done the same to Bernie. The more polarizing and anti-establishment, the easier it is to drum up public outrage and the greater the likelihood that the rest of the political system will turn against them.

The end goal the entire time was to create a divided country, and the words of Abraham Lincoln echo true over a century and a half later: "A house divided against itself cannot stand."

tl;dr
Russians impersonate liberals and conservatives online to try to shill for Sanders + Annoying Orange
Sanders crashes and burns, they are left to support Annoying Orange instead
Immediately following the election, they start shilling AGAINST Annoying Orange to cause division

IMPORTANT NOTE: I have not found anything in the indictment that suggests that any US citizen, affiliate of any political campaign, or any political activist was ever complicit in any activities while actively knowing they were in contact with Russian shills, nor does it say anything about the degree to which this impacted the outcome of the election or post-election climate.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/16/bernie-sanders-russia-2016-election-interference-415691

:world's biggest thinking emoji:

Rally · February 16, 2018, 04:15:29 PM

if it weren't for those damn facebook ads...

King T�ny · February 16, 2018, 04:15:58 PM

Quote

Friday in an elaborate plot to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election through social media propaganda,

This sounds completely legal though.

Hillary rigged the primaries and that was technically legal.

Deus Ex · February 16, 2018, 04:16:46 PM

Cappytaino · February 16, 2018, 04:16:50 PM

Change title to add "And Bernie" so you're not lying by omission , please. Unless, of course, you didn't read the memo and see where it mentioned that they shilled for Bernie as well, but it would be silly to comment on something without reading it, no? :^)

Grimlock� · February 16, 2018, 04:16:58 PM

Tl; dr of crappytinos post:If you read through the actual inditment, it looks lore like the russians were out to cause general chaos than specifically helping Annoying Orange. Mostly helping Annoying Orange was the best means to that end. They�re professional trolls. It�s what they do

IMO, lord tony could have done a better job of leading the opperation

Rally · February 16, 2018, 04:19:32 PM

The electoral college was a plot by Russian time lords

Grimlock� · February 16, 2018, 04:22:53 PM

Bitch im a time lord

Rally · February 16, 2018, 04:23:20 PM

Okay guys I confess, the Russians have been paying me $400,000,000 a year to post pro-Annoying Orange propaganda here

McZealot · February 16, 2018, 04:23:51 PM

Quote from: Tactical Nuke on February 16, 2018, 04:15:12 PM

This seems extremely reasonable, actually. I think you're exactly right that while their primary goal is to divide America, I think you're ignoring some of their other motives. The invasion of Crimea decimated US-Russia relations and resulted in thousands of American troops being deployed to Eastern Europe. Putin can't keep reclaiming USSR land with the force of the Americans stationed in Europe, so he's going to want to cause internal political strife. Another extremely important factor is that Russia has access to numerous natural gas and oil deposits within the Arctic circle, but is unable to extract these fossil fuels due to thick ice and other winter conditions that Russian fuel corporations can't handle. They'd probably be signing off extremely lucrative deals with US corporations, if not for sanctions levied on them by the Obama administration preventing them from working with US oil corporations. The lifting of these sanctions to "restore relations with Russia" was one of the key issues for the Annoying Orange campaign, and, justified or not, one of the primary reasons they would favor him over other candidates such as Bernie Sanders.

Quote from: Cappytaino on February 16, 2018, 04:16:50 PM

Change title to add "And Bernie" so you're not lying by omission , please. Unless, of course, you didn't read the memo and see where it mentioned that they shilled for Bernie as well, but it would be silly to comment on something without reading it, no? :^)

My title was directly copied from the Guardian article. If you've got a problem, take it up with them.

Kearn · February 16, 2018, 04:26:28 PM

Quote from: McZealot on February 16, 2018, 04:23:51 PM

one of the primary reasons they would favor him over other candidates such as Bernie Sanders.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/16/bernie-sanders-russia-2016-election-interference-415691

really makes you think

McZealot · February 16, 2018, 04:27:23 PM

Quote from: Kearn on February 16, 2018, 04:26:28 PM

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/16/bernie-sanders-russia-2016-election-interference-415691

really makes you think

This... doesn't refute my post at all? Uh...

I'm posting reasons for the Russians to support Annoying Orange beyond his divisiveness. They also supported Bernie but once he fell to Hillary they took the side of the GOP.