(02-24-2018 01:57 PM)tanqtonic Wrote:  

(02-24-2018 01:34 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  I said overt, not anything about social media. Is there evidence they ever placed ads or organized rallies before? What about sending agents to talk to potential voters? Or gown about getting fake news stories into the media that pushed a narrative? Any ornament those examples could have happened in previous elections, prior to the advent of social media. It isn’t like there weren’t overt ways for them to meddle before this election.

Your view is far too narrow and focusing on only one aspect of their overt actions thos election.

I am going to enlarge 'Russians' to 'Soviets' for this response.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_inf...e_movement

from Politifact:

Quote:• 1960: Through his ambassador to the United States, Mikhail Menshikov, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev offered Adlai Stevenson help from a secret propaganda campaign. However, Stevenson declined the offer. He lost in the Democratic primary to John F. Kennedy.

• 1968: The Soviet Union’s ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Dobrynin, offered to secretly fund Hubert Humphrey’s campaign against Richard Nixon. Humphrey declined the bribe.

• 1976: Fearing that anti-communist Democrat Henry "Scoop" Jackson stood a good chance at winning in the wake of Nixon’s resignation, the KGB began a smear campaign. Soviet spies forged FBI paperwork to make it appear Jackson was secretly gay and sent the fake reports to newspapers around the United States during the election and for years after.

There are a lot of investigative reports in KGB funding political activity in the US, mainly from the late 60s to the mid 80s.

Direct (but behind the curtains) funding of various labor groups, environmental groups, and peace groups I know I've seen documentation on but need to try and re-discover them.

In addition this is a neat short concise article:
http://www.ponarseurasia.org/memo/soviet...s-politics

http://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2017/01/...ark-kramer

And, none of these even touch on Ted Kennedy's overtures to the Soviet Union for help in the 1984 election. That is our candidate directly asking for help, and has been pretty much verified across the board. Less verifiable than the Kennedy request, was that the Soviets actually responded with help, but that aid was not effective in any more than a negligible manner.

It would seem that there are deep roots in Soviet 'participation' in US politics, albeit nothing as effective as that seen in 2016. And, I guess for them, it is an investment that keeps on giving..... especially with the concerted effort by Team Hillary to paint the results of the election as being 'derived' by the Russians. Quite the feat that the efforts and aura of that witch keeps giving off noxious vibes even after the stake got rammed through that self-centered, cold, political heart of hers.

I actually posted the politifact article earlier - I appreciate a bit more info on the other items. I think that 2016 was not only the most effective, but likely the most concerted effort yet. The number of man hours dedicated to the initiative is pretty staggering. And I find the fact that many on this board can't really agree on the severity of this act has potential dire consequences for future elections, as I think Russia will be encouraged to keep up the work.