Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Republicans in disarray!

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Let’s finish the job.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

This blog will pay for itself.

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We are aware of all internet traditions.

No one could have predicted…

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2018 / It’s So Weird How All These Coincidences Keep Happening

It’s So Weird How All These Coincidences Keep Happening

by | 70 Comments

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I know there are some who keep screaming about the deep state and how liberals have all lost it over Russia, but it’s just so weird how all these hacking attacks keep happening to Democrats running against the Kremlin’s favorite Republicans and ain’t it just strange:

FBI agents in California and Washington, D.C., have investigated a series of cyberattacks over the past year that targeted a Democratic opponent of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA). Rohrabacher is a 15-term incumbent who is widely seen as the most pro-Russia and pro-Putin member of Congress and is a staunch supporter of President Trump.

The hacking attempts and the FBI’s involvement are described in dozens of emails and forensic records obtained by Rolling Stone.

The target of these attacks, Dr. Hans Keirstead, a stem-cell scientist and the CEO of a biomedical research company, finished third in California’s nonpartisan “top-two” primary on June 5th, falling 125 votes short of advancing to the general election in one of the narrowest margins of any congressional primary this year. He has since endorsed Harley Rouda…

Of course that’s just what the DEEP STATE wants you to think.

Reader Interactions

70Comments

  3. 3.

    Gin & Tonic

    Some dude I exchange e-mail with occasionally says “coincidence takes a lot of planning.”

  6. 6.

    kindness

    I’ve already seen a couple on ‘our side’ criticize the winning Dem as a DLC sellout. I don’t know that rational people wouldn’t see how we allowed ourselves to shoot our side in all our feet last election. I surely don’t want to see that again. Of course they could be professional trolls claiming to be true liberals….meh, vote for any Dem over any Repub for many many years is my notion for now.

  11. 11.

    khead

    Open thread? Ok.

    We are about to witness a sea change in the way we view sports in America. I don’t think folks realize the storm that is coming. Sports betting is gonna hit America like the opiod crisis.

  18. 18.

    Adam L Silverman

    @khead: Thanks. That’s why I wanted to check when I saw you. If you don’t see it, please send me an email from a working address using the contact a front pager tool and I’ll resend it.

  20. 20.

    jonas

    Clearly a false flag operation by the Deep State, Antifa, and the Venezuelans to make it LOOK like Russiabots are targeting the patriotic Mr. Rohrbacher’s opponents. They will stop at nothing! *shakes fist at sky*

  24. 24.

    Mike in NC

    During the Cold War that fucker Rohrabacher was the most anti-Soviet member of Congress. Now he’s among several Republicans (plus Trump) totally in the pocket of the Kremlin. Follow the money, I guess.

  25. 25.

    Raoul

    When we have Lindsey Graham on the hustings calling for the jailing of Hillary Clinton, the whole damn thing has just gone straight to hell. I feel encouraged by last night’s turnout in Minnesota and other states. I think we still have a shot to hold this country from flying to pieces. But it’s touch and go.

    Rohrabacher benefitting directly fro Kremlin interference is not unimportant. But he’s just a cog in a giant machine of perverted incentives, most likely layered with kompromat, and with the aim of pulling this nation to shreds.

  26. 26.

    Chetan Murthy

    @khead: And to make things worse, the hedgies are gonna be all over this like fleas on shit. B/c “new asset class”. I shit you not, I’ve heard this from folks in the biz. It’s gonna get really ugly.

  28. 28.

    Chetan Murthy

    @khead: To support khead’s point: indeed, Americans wager on sports. But until now, it hasn’t been ….. mass-advertised like we’re about to see. Remember when cigarettes were *everywhere*? Every film star, every magazine, etc? Glamorous as all-get-out. And then with the big settlement, that went down a *lot*. Well, sports betting’s gonna be like that, in reverse. We’re gonna see it all over. With all the imaginable ill effects both on bettors and players.

  29. 29.

    jonas

    @rikyrah: I’d like to see Cheryl or Adam’s thoughts on this. According to the article, some cyber IC people thought this rule tied their hands, but others point out that it was designed to ensure that various agencies actually talked to each other before undertaking a cyber-operation that could unintentionally jeopardize ongoing intelligence-gathering efforts — e.g. torching some computer network that the NSA had spent years trying to infiltrate. This seems to be another “if Obama was fer, I’m agin’ it!” reaction from Trump.

  30. 30.

    khead

    @Chetan Murthy:

    The NFL is too stupid to even understand their fan base. The NFL’s core audience isn’t the guy wearing a MAGA hat bitching about players kneeling for the anthem. The NFL’s core audience is the guy tuning in on Thursday night to see if the sorry ass Jets can cover the spread.

    The first – and only – response to Trump from Goodell should have been “Go fuck yourself”. Put another way, “It’s the gambling, stupid”.

  32. 32.

    NotMax

    @Mike in NC

    During the Cold War that fucker Rohrabacher was the most anti-Soviet member of Congress

    Don’t remember that other Californian, “B-1 Bob” Dornan?

  33. 33.

    Betty Cracker

    The Russians are all up in our election system in certain counties here in Florida, according to Senator Bill Nelson, a moderate incumbent Democrat. Nelson’s opponent this fall is the current wingnut governor, Rick Scott.

    Scott, who as sitting governor would theoretically have a role in protecting the state’s voting systems from foreign attack, is instead ridiculing Nelson for raising the issue. I have zero confidence the wingnut secretary of state will move to help Pudunk County fend off the Rooskies.

    Y’all, the election is nearly upon us, and these motherfuckers — from Trump on down to your local GOP county commissioner — aren’t going to shit to protect our franchise.

  34. 34.

    Mike J

    Argh. Brain fart. Can’t remember the name of a movie. New wave, 2 guys meet a girl in an English language class, they follow her back to grandma’s place where they attempt crimes.

  35. 35.

    Adam L Silverman

    @jonas: I’m not a Wall Street Journal subscriber, so can’t read the article till someone else does a follow up on it. Until then, I can’t offer much.

  36. 36.

    Tilda Swintons Bald Cap

    @khead: Have you ever read the comments over at Profootballtalk regarding the anthem protests? You might change your mind about the NFL’s “base”.

  37. 37.

    khead

    @Chetan Murthy:

    This. Oh so this. In another life where I had no conscience I would already be a tout selling picks on the Internets.

    I encourage anyone reading this to search “Wayne Allyn Root” and “boiler room”. Wayne was the libertarian VP candidate that ran with Bob Barr in 2008. Wayne’s former operation is the sort of thing that is about to hit the mainstream. And it’s going to be a giant clusterfuck.

  42. 42.

    Mike in NC

    @NotMax: Yeah, I was working in DC back in the day when B-1 Bob Dornan staged some lame rally on the Mall. Almost nobody could be bothered to show up.

  44. 44.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Something funky going on with George Pappadapolous and his mysterious wife, though I really can’t tell what Josh Marshall is getting at. I’d say it’s irresponsible speculation that Simone is actually some kind of Russian operative, but Donald trump is president and his son, son-in-law and fantastically corrupt campaign chair met with Russian agents promising Russian gov’t help in a US presidential campaign

    @Mike J: I mostly remember it for the dance scene

  46. 46.

    Jay

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    George’s mysterious wife keeps an apartment overlooking the Portsmouth Naval base, big ass binoculars, and a bunch of burner cell phones to report the comings and goings,

    That’s the British rumour anyway,…….

  47. 47.

    Another Scott

    @Adam L Silverman: If you click on a WSJ link that is directly from a Twitter post, you can read it without being a subscriber. E.g. rikyrah’s link above: https://t.co/LjP6nCMVWY

    (WSJ seems to check the Referrer (?) attribute buried in the link to decide that links from Twitter are OK.)

    HTH.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  50. 50.

    NotMax

    Quick note of a championship double-header coming up on TCM.

    Network at 11:45 p.m.
    Sunday Bloody Sunday at 2:00 a.m.

  52. 52.

    Amir Khalid

    @khead:
    That tells me America is late to the party again. Sports betting has been big in Europe for years. A surprising number of English Premier League football clubs are sponsored by betting firms (i.e. commercial bookies).

  53. 53.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Let me unpack this for you. Apparently Papadapolous’s wife gave an interview to one of the Daily Caller reporters hinting that he is looking to get new lawyers and she thinks he should back out of his plea deal with Mueller. Marshall is delineating some of the things that Mueller did not charge Papadapolous with, but could have, and most likely would, if he pulls out of his agreement. He also lays out some speculative scenarios of what may be going in. Finally, he brings back up that Papadapolous’s wife is something of a cypher. That she, herself, may be both a honey trap and Papadapolous’s handler on behalf of the Russians as her actual personal and professional history, other than she claims to be Italian (apparently her Russian is spoken like a native Russian and her Italian isn’t) and did work for the now missing Professor Misfud, are largely unknown.

  54. 54.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Another Scott: Thanks, normally that doesn’t work for me, but this time it did.

    @jonas: I’ve read the article. The answer is I don’t know because there are no details of what the new directive to replace the old, tighter/more restrictive directive are. So this may make it easier for the NSA Director and the Commander of Cyber Command to take both offensive and defensive actions. Or it could do that, but in a way that screws up other cyber operations. Until or unless information on what the new rules are are released, I can’t say any more.

  57. 57.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Another Scott: Amazing! I actually got the article rather than their paywall. But I’ve tried clicking on Twitter links to WSJ before, and, like Adam, just gotten the paywall. So I’ve pretty much given up clicking on WSJ links.

  59. 59.

    Amir Khalid

    @Adam L Silverman:
    I would go by the assumption that any loosening of regulations by this White House is designed (ETA: by Trump’s Russian friends) to yield the clusterfuckiest possible consequences.

  64. 64.

    L85NJGT

    @NotMax:

    The B0ne? Carter? Groan… he thought unmanned cruise missiles and stealth aircraft were the future. Thank Jah we got a President who liked to imagine he had served.

  66. 66.

    Another Scott

    @Cheryl Rofer and Adam: They usually work for me, and similarly at FTFNYT, but I have to admit that my dataset is rather small. Maybe they only let a subset of Twitter links through the paywall. Dunno.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  67. 67.

    opiejeanne

    @chopper: Good one.
    He’s long gone but a son is named Joseph for McCarthy and he’s part of the Trump administration, and a daughter is the infamous Mary Kay LeTourneau.

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