U.S. reportedly suspends planning against Russian Cyber Ops

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One of the most frustrating things about how people remember the Mueller Report is that the Mueller Report described very clearly and in great detail Russia's wide-ranging efforts to undermine and impact the US election (much of it directly in Trump's favor). But Trump has succeeded in getting a lot of people to believe that the whole Russia side of that was made up just because Mueller was unable to determine if Trump's dingbat campaign officials were intentionally colluding with Russians or just being unknowingly manipulated by them.
 
heelinhell said:
What dirt could Putin possibly have on Trump that is worse than the public knowledge we have of Trump ?

Pee tapes with Russian hookers would not make Trump look any worse than what we already know about Trump .
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The sad truth is I'm not even convinced Putin has anything on Trump. I would actually have more respect for Trump if he was being blackmailed by Putin somehow. but I think the pathetic truth is that Trump essentially looks up to Putin and/or sees him as a kindred spirit. He is jealous of the level of personal control Putin has over his country, government, and media and thinks he should have the same level of control. He sees Putin as having been unfairly maligned in the "Russia hoax" alongside himself (I honestly think Trump believes in his head that it was all a hoax and Russia did nothing wrong).

So it's not that Putin has something on trump. it's worse. Our President is just a gullible, manipulable fool.
 
rodoheel said:
One of the most frustrating things about how people remember the Mueller Report is that the Mueller Report described very clearly and in great detail Russia's wide-ranging efforts to undermine and impact the US election (much of it directly in Trump's favor). But Trump has succeeded in getting a lot of people to believe that the whole Russia side of that was made up just because Mueller was unable to determine if Trump's dingbat campaign officials were intentionally colluding with Russians or just being unknowingly manipulated by them.
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Mueller made clear that Trump obstruction prevented him from establishing sufficient evidence to prosecute and win a jury verdict for the charge of criminal conspiracy. For Mueller his investigation was not whether there was collusion but to determine whether there was a criminal conspiracy to interfere with the 2016 election.

His expectation was that his plethora of evidence that Trump and his minions obstructed his investigation would be sufficient to lead the House to impeach, the Senate to convict, and remove Trump from office.
 
rodoheel said:
The sad truth is I'm not even convinced Putin has anything on Trump. I would actually have more respect for Trump if he was being blackmailed by Putin somehow. but I think the pathetic truth is that Trump essentially looks up to Putin and/or sees him as a kindred spirit. He is jealous of the level of personal control Putin has over his country, government, and media and thinks he should have the same level of control. He sees Putin as having been unfairly maligned in the "Russia hoax" alongside himself (I honestly think Trump believes in his head that it was all a hoax and Russia did nothing wrong).

So it's not that Putin has something on trump. it's worse. Our President is just a gullible, manipulable fool.
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This is my feeling as well, for the most part. I have no doubt that Putin has information about Trump that isn't available to the public, just as I'm sure that pretty much every leader of pretty much every major country has information about every other head of state. But it's Trump view of, and desire to emulate, Putin that concerns me more than anything else. Other than the chaos monkey that is Elon Musk, that is.
 
heelinhell said:
Mueller made clear that Trump obstruction prevented him from establishing sufficient evidence to prosecute and win a jury verdict for the charge of criminal conspiracy. For Mueller his investigation was not whether there was collusion but to determine whether there was a criminal conspiracy to interfere with the 2016 election.

His expectation was that his plethora of evidence that Trump and his minions obstructed his investigation would be sufficient to lead the House to impeach, the Senate to convict, and remove Trump from office.
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If that were his expectation, then he was dreaming. It has never happened in our history. And party lines are far more inviolate than in the past. Trump could literally shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not be impeached.
 
rodoheel said:
The sad truth is I'm not even convinced Putin has anything on Trump. I would actually have more respect for Trump if he was being blackmailed by Putin somehow. but I think the pathetic truth is that Trump essentially looks up to Putin and/or sees him as a kindred spirit. He is jealous of the level of personal control Putin has over his country, government, and media and thinks he should have the same level of control. He sees Putin as having been unfairly maligned in the "Russia hoax" alongside himself (I honestly think Trump believes in his head that it was all a hoax and Russia did nothing wrong).

So it's not that Putin has something on trump. it's worse. Our President is just a gullible, manipulable fool.
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I think Putin has got something on Trump. However, your explanation is certainly plausible. Whichever theory is correct, there’s no doubt Putin has Trump by the balls.
 
Count me in the camp that Putin doesn't have any outright kompromat on Trump, per se. I think that as a former KGB agent, Putin is simply a mastermind of psychological warfare and manipulation.
 
CFordUNC said:
Count me in the camp that Putin doesn't have any outright kompromat on Trump, per se. I think that as a former KGB agent, Putin is simply a mastermind of psychological warfare and manipulation.
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And would it really matter to MAGA nation if Putin did, and disclosed it? Not one iota. Suck it, libs!
 
korgguy1971 said:
And would it really matter to MAGA nation if Putin did, and disclosed it? Not one iota. Suck it, libs!
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Oh yeah, totally agree, that’s the thing. There’s literally nothing that Putin could conceivably have on Trump that would cause Trump to lose one single solitary MAGA vote.

We are simply in the unfortunate position of having one of the world’s most brilliant psychological warfare wielders in his position of power at the exact same time as we have the single dumbest, most unintelligent, most easily manipulated, most petulant president in the history of the country in our position of power. It’s not even remotely a fair fight. At this point we are essentially reduced to hoping that the next four years pass without too much irreparable damage happening, or that in the interim Putin dies or is assassinated.
 
CFordUNC said:
Count me in the camp that Putin doesn't have any outright kompromat on Trump, per se. I think that as a former KGB agent, Putin is simply a mastermind of psychological warfare and manipulation.
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It doesn’t even take a mastermind to influence Trump. He’s hyper-transactional and sees every exchange as having a winner and a loser. He craves adoration from those he sees as lesser and acceptance by those he sees as greater. Play on his need for adoration or acceptance and his idea of winning is easily malleable.
 
CFordUNC said:
Oh yeah, totally agree, that’s the thing. There’s literally nothing that Putin could conceivably have on Trump that would cause Trump to lose one single solitary MAGA vote.

We are simply in the unfortunate position of having one of the world’s most brilliant psychological warfare wielders in his position of power at the exact same time as we have the single dumbest, most unintelligent, most easily manipulated, most petulant president in the history of the country in our position of power. It’s not even remotely a fair fight. At this point we are essentially reduced to hoping that the next four years pass without too much irreparable damage happening, or that in the interim Putin dies or is assassinated.
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You don't have to be brilliant to manipulate Trump. Kim Jong Un and Elon Musk and Steve Bannon and a host of other exceptionally middling minds have played him over the years.

Putin isn't special in his ability to get Trump to jump through hoops. Hell, according to former White House staff, all you have to be is the last person to talk to him to get him to do what you want.
 
Just for context - cyber warfare is our biggest threat in today’s world.

Any Trumpers want to defend this action?
 
CFordUNC said:
. . .. At this point we are essentially reduced to hoping that the next four years pass without too much irreparable damage happening, or that in the interim Putin dies or is assassinated.
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So you are suggesting that the future of the United States is contingent on some Russian oligarch or high-level apparatchik cornering the real Putin--not one of his half-dozen decoys--in a vulnerable position and killing him? And in the ensuing scramble/fight for power, things get sloppy enough that the Russian kompromat on Trump spills out? Would be wonderful to see. The only thing that a free United States has going for itself right now is that Vlad "the Ras" Putin is not a big fan of succession planning.
 

Did Trump Admin Order U.S. Cyber Command and CISA to Stand Down on Russia?​


www.zetter-zeroday.com

Did Trump Admin Order U.S. Cyber Command and CISA to Stand Down on Russia?

Two blockbuster stories published on Friday that appear to confirm what many Americans suspected would occur under the Trump administration – that the new regime is going to be softer on Russia than previous administrations, particularly with regard to the threat that Russia poses in cyber...
www.zetter-zeroday.com

“… Cyber Command is a military unit under the Department of Defense and conducts both offensive and defensive cyber activity outside the U.S. This includes hunt-forward operations (assisting Ukraine and other nations in finding malicious activity on their networks, for example), conducting "effects" operations (cyber attacks that degrade, destroy or disrupt an adversary's electronic systems) and taking down infrastructure used for malicious purposes against the U.S. or its partners.

CISA, on the other hand, is entirely domestic and defensive in its mission. Its job is to help defend the federal government's civilian networks (the National Security Agency helps defend military networks) and it helps the owners of critical infrastructure – most of which is privately owned in the U.S. – defend these networks by conducting risk assessments, providing information about vulnerabilities and patching guidance, and assisting with incident response after a breach when needed.

Therefore, telling Cyber Command to stand down on Russia is very different from telling CISA to stand down, though the policy directives described in each story could potentially have similar effects in weakening U.S. security.

… Two days after the Guardian story published, however, CISA denied the report in a post published on X and in a statement given to reporters. "CISA’s mission is to defend against all cyber threats to U.S. Critical Infrastructure, including from Russia," the agency wrote on X Sunday evening. "There has been no change in our posture. Any reporting to the contrary is fake and undermines our national security."

Additionally, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told reporters that “CISA remains committed to addressing all cyberthreats to U.S. critical infrastructure, including from Russia. There has been no change in our posture or priority on this front.”

… Jason Kikta, a former Cyber Command official, told me on Friday that halting offensive cyber operations and information operations against a country during negotiations with that country is normal. "Not exactly standard, but common enough," he said.

The U.S. would want to halt cyber operations against Russia during negotiations to avoid "pissing off the other side," he noted, but the halt would be temporary.

The Record said that Cyber Command had begun compiling a report for the secretary of defense that lists all "ongoing actions or missions" halted as a result of his stand-down order and that also details what potential threats still emanate from Russia. It would make sense for an incoming defense secretary to want to understand what operations are currently being conducted against Russia if the U.S. is preparing to enter negotiations with it.

The secretary might want to halt all operations during negotiations with Russia or just halt ones that Russia would be more likely to trigger anger from Russia if detected.

[A less charitable reading of this, however, would be that the Trump administration is looking to collect information on U.S. cyber offensive operations against Russia in order to share that information with Russia – especially operations that may be helping Ukraine in its war with Russia. But there is currently no evidence that this is the aim.] …”
 
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