What does the DNC e-mail hack tell us?

Huge embarrassment over the past few days for the Democrats as they headed into their convention, with the party chair, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, being forced to resign over the revelations of less-than-even-handed behavior on the part of the Democratic Party toward its two main candidates.  First W-S was still going to gavel the convention (and I’m sure that would have gone over well) and then, at pretty much the last possible moment, she was replaced in that role by Representative Marcia Fudge of Ohio.  (Rep. Fudge showed up in the PBS booth after she’d opened the convention, and I’d have to say that the phrases “tough cookie” and “cool as a cucumber” both apply to her.)  So this whole kerfuffle is getting a lot of play by the Republicans, and one has to say, fair enough.  After the drubbing the RNC took in the media last week, they’re looking for ammunition to use similarly against the Democrats.

But here’s the real, and very troubling question:  Who was behind the hack, and what was its purpose?  It has now been pretty well established by major news outlets (Fox News and NBC News, for instance) that the fingerprints of Russian hackers are all over this.  Those of you who know me at all will be aware of how much I despise conspiracy theories and how much I love debunking them.  This is not a conspiracy theory; it seems to be plain, well -attested fact.  The Kremliln, of course, has said that the accusation is “absurd.”

So the question is, Why?  Why would Russia, or the Russians, or the Russian government, or whoever, be so set on making the DNC look bad, when this did not happen with the RNC?  Do the Republicans have that much better computer security?  Maybe.  Maybe this was an equal-opportunity attack and it only succeeded with the DNC. But there are some very troubling connections between Donald Trump and Russia, with a real love fest going on between him and Vladimir Putin. I’ve had to pull myself back from spending hours reading credible, well-attested material out there on this issue, and it would probably be counterproductive for me to give a laundry list below of that material. Instead, let me urge you, first and foremost, to read the excellent article from the excellent source The Federalist that was published back in February and couldn’t be more relevant today:  “Five Reasons Every American Should Oppose Donald Trump.”  What the first reason given?  “Donald Trump admires tyrants.”  And the first example given is Vladimir Putin.

Don’t want to sit down and read a lengthy article?  Then you can listen to some very funny and informative episodes from Slate.com’s “Trumpcast,” which has been going on since March.  It doesn’t pretend to be neutral.  The reason why I’m recommending these episodes is that they’re podcasts, so you can listen to them while doing other things, and they’re fairly short.  They’re also not particularly pro-Hillary; that’s not their purpose.  They always give a warning about bad language; I don’t think any of these episodes offends in this matter. Plenty to be offended about in other ways, though, if you’re a Trump supporter.  I urge you to listen with an open mind.

“The Post-Modern Manchurian Candidate” July 25, 2016 (This latest episode is on Stitcher Radio)
​”The Moscow Mule” July 8, 2016
“America’s Putin” June 1, 2016