Битва за Калифорнию

[tijd]

Выступая в консервативном Hudson Institute незадолго до поездки Трампа в Хельсинки, директор национальной разведки Коутс сделал нашумевшее заявление "the system is blinking".

"In regards to the state actions, Russia has been the most aggressive foreign actor - no question. And they continue their efforts to undermine our democracy. In regards to the upcoming midterm elections, I think there may have been some confusion between what we are seeing now compared to what we saw in 2016. As the Department of Homeland Security noted, we are not yet seeing the kind of electoral interference in specific states and voter databases that we experienced in 2016. However, we fully realize that we are just one click of the keyboard away from a similar situation repeating itself. Therefore, and moreover, we are seeing aggressive attempts to manipulate social media and to spread propaganda focused on hot-button issues that are intended to exacerbate socio-political divisions. Despite public statements by the Kremlin to the contrary, we continue to see individuals affiliated with the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency creating new social media accounts, masquerading as Americans, and then using these accounts to draw attention to divisive issues. We have learned, just before this meeting, about the indictment of 12 Russian military intelligence officials relative to their role in 2016.
But focusing on the potential impact of these actions on our midterm elections misses the more important point: these actions are persistent, they are pervasive, and they are meant to undermine America’s democracy on a daily basis, regardless of whether it is election time or not. Russian actors and others are exploring vulnerabilities in our critical infrastructure as well. The DHS and FBI - in coordination with international partners - have detected Russian government actors targeting government and businesses in the energy, nuclear, water, aviation and critical manufacturing sectors.
The warning signs are there, the system is blinking, and that is why I believe we are at a critical point."
https://www.hudson.org/research/14456-full-transcript-dialogues-on-american-foreign-policy-and-world-affairs-director-of-national-intelligence-dan-coats-and-walter-russell-mead



Ныне предупреждение Коутса подтверждаются. Microsoft сообщает, что атакам известного нам подразделения ГРУ наряду с сенаторами подвергся сам Hudson Institute, а также IRI (International Republican Institute).

Microsoft has notified both nonprofit organizations. Both have responded quickly, and Microsoft will continue to work closely with them and other targeted organizations on countering cybersecurity threats to their systems. We’ve also been monitoring and addressing domain activity with Senate IT staff the past several months, following prior attacks we detected on the staffs of two current senators.
Despite last week’s steps, we are concerned by the continued activity targeting these and other sites and directed toward elected officials, politicians, political groups and think tanks across the political spectrum in the United States. Taken together, this pattern mirrors the type of activity we saw prior to the 2016 election in the United States and the 2017 election in France.
https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2018/08/20/we-are-taking-new-steps-against-broadening-threats-to-democracy/



Между тем хакерским атакам подверглись два кандидата в Конгресс из Южной Калифорнии.

A law enforcement official told The Associated Press the FBI looked into hacks involving David Min in the 45th Congressional District and Hans Keirstead in the adjacent 48th District. Both districts are in Orange County and are seen as potential pickups as the Democratic Party seeks to win control of the Congress in November.
A person with knowledge of the Min investigation told the AP on Monday that two laptops used by senior staffers for the candidate were found infected with malware in March. It’s not clear what, if any, data was stolen, and there is no evidence the breach influenced the contest.
The CEO of a biomedical research company, Keirstead last summer was the victim of a broad “spear-phishing” attack, in which emails that appear to come from a friend or familiar source are designed to help hackers snatch sensitive or confidential information, the law enforcement official said. There is no evidence Keirstead lost valuable information.
The investigations so far have not turned up evidence the two candidates in Orange County were political targets.
https://apnews.com/1c26925349074be09aba3a22b8d63fb8

Упомянутый Hans Keirstead был предполагаемым демократическим соперником путинского любимого конгрессмена Дейны Рорабейкера. Он проиграл на праймериз другому демократу, Harley Rouda. Сайт 538 оценивает в 65% шансы Харли Руда победить на выборах в ноябре и таким образом прогнать Рорабейкера из Конгресса.

My opponent is once again making Fox News appearances discrediting our intelligence agencies in his attempt to defend Putin.

Reminder. 👇🏽

“Why in the world would my colleague take this kind of strident, pro-Russia, pro-Putin advocacy and dismiss evidence to the contrary? pic.twitter.com/awAw4mTUG4
- Harley Rouda (@HarleyRouda) July 7, 2018

Упомянутый David Min проиграл на праймериз Katie Porter, которая в соседнем округе (Ирвайн и окрестности) ныне борется с республиканкой Мими Уотерс. Шансы Портер оцениваются в 60%.

We should all be concerned by the actions of the President and his enablers.

Collusion is a crime. So is obstruction of justice.

And truth-despite what Trump's lawyer claims-is truth.

Mr. Mueller must be allowed to finish his investigation and then we must act accordingly.
- Katie Porter (@katieporteroc) August 21, 2018

Практически 100% шансы на перевыборы у конгрессмена Ро Ханна из Северной Калифорнии. Его округ включает в себя значительную часть Силиконовой Долины (Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Santa Clara, Fremont, Newark, North San Jose, Milpitas), включая штаб-квартиры Intel и Аpple.



Сторонник Берни Сандерса, в 2016 Ханна одержал несколько неожиданную победу, вытеснив предыдущего демократа, Майка Хонду.

Khanna supported Sanders in the presidential primary, and he told me he won by responding to people’s distrust of the system - he took no PAC money, and has introduced legislation saying no other congressional candidates should either - and to their desire for big policy advances. As a result, he said, his polls showed that, in California’s unusual two-Democrat November runoff, he led among both Trump voters and Sanders voters.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-democrats-can-be-progressive-without-being-irresponsible/2017/04/09/c8128cf6-1bb1-11e7-855e-4824bbb5d748_story.html

Вместе с другими инициативами, новоизбранный конгрессмен неожиданно взял на себя дело борьбы против антисемитизма в Украине и Польше.



В апреле этого года ему удалось подбить 50 конгрессменов подписать письмо в Госдеп с выражением озабоченности. Хотя отдельные проявления антисемитизма в означенных странах существует, часть письма выглядит как будто переведенной с русского и подброшенной в качестве гранаты в "информационной войне".

The groups and individuals extolled by Ukraine include Nazi collaborators Stepan Bandera, Roman Shukhevych, and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), as well as the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). These paramilitaries and individuals in some cases collaborated with the Nazis and bear responsibility for the murder of thousands of Jews, 70,000-100,000 Poles, and other ethnic minorities between 1941 and 1945.
It’s particularly troubling that much of the Nazi glorification in Ukraine is government-supported. Examples include the 2017 pro-UPA campaign conducted by the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory; the naming of streets after Bandera and Shukhevych by the Kyiv city council; and L’viv’s 2017 “ShukhevychFest” which took place on the anniversary of the 1941 L’viv Pogroms in which 4000 Jews were killed.
https://khanna.house.gov/media/press-releases/release-rep-khanna-leads-bipartisan-members-condemning-anti-semitism-europe

Письмо было незамедлительно подхвачено российской пропагандой:
https://www.stopfake.org/fejk-v-ukraine-razgul-antisemitizma/



Ассоциация еврейских организаций Украины вынуждена была выступить с заявлением.

One may recall that when American congressmen wrote similar letters in 2009 and 2013, they were initiated by political technologists working for the Kremlin. This we can be sure of. And although we have no (perhaps, not yet) information as to who prompted the writing of this letter (for Ro Khanna is unlikely to have personally written it) and how exactly its signing was lobbied, we believe it quite possible that its appearance is part of a new wave of anti-Ukrainian propaganda of anti-Semitic speculations.
In connection with everything written above, the Vaad of Ukraine deems it necessary to state that:
- the letter signed by the congressmen contains statements and false accusations that do not correspond to reality;
- contrary to the letter, there is no state-sponsored Holocaust denial or heroization of the Nazis in Ukraine;
- there is no essential rise in anti-Semitism in Ukraine - not a single incident of anti-Semitic violence has been registered in Ukraine in the past two years.
We consider this letter to be a piece of anti-Ukrainian defamation which is already in use by the propaganda sector of Russian Federation’s hybrid war on Ukraine.
http://www.vaadua.org/statement-presidium-vaad-ukraine-response-letter-us-congressmen-concerning-anti-semitism-poland-and



На этом подвиги конгрессмена Ханны не закончились. Совместно с любимым путинским сенатором Рэндом Полом он опубликовал статью с призывом к изоляционизму во внешней политики, в частности скорейшему уходу из Сирии.

No one disputes that Syrian President Bashar Assad is a brutal dictator. But instead of intervening, which has made matters worse, we should seek regional cease-fires involving all the players in the region, including Russia and Turkey. A political solution will not be easy, but reactive and sporadic military involvement does nothing to advance peace.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-rand-khanna-foreign-policy-john-quincy-adams-20170601-story.html



После выполнения деликатного поручения во время поездки в Москву и успешного проталкивания решения о лишении Джона Бреннана допуска к секретным материалам, сенатор из Кентукки превратился в особу, приближенную к престолу.

From the White House: "The President played a quick round of golf with Senator Rand Paul who the president really likes and enjoys spending time with. He also spent the weekend working on economic growth and making calls on the economy and national security.”
- Meridith McGraw (@meridithmcgraw) August 19, 2018