# White House announces Russian sanctions. **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [December 29, 2016, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-announces-russian-sanctions/775863 "2016-12-29T20:31:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-announces-russian-sanctions/775863/221 "2017-01-04T10:00:36Z")
We should know tomorrow, which is the Wednesday of “…Tuesday or Wednesday…” You remember, its the day when he will reveal his secret knowledge about all this so called “hacking”. I’m ready, got some microwavable crow to eat when he crushes us all with his brilliance. 'Course, some people are saying its just a fake-out, something he said to squirm away from a pointed question and what he actually has is a big bag of zilch, and will most likely offer some excuse. Too busy saving jobs, hot comb broken, something like that. People _are_ saying that. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-announces-russian-sanctions/775863/222 "2017-01-04T13:03:28Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > I don’t know about the “spending millions of Rubles” part, but it’s not uncommon for “hacktivists” on either side of an issue or conflict to jump in on “their side” and mess with the opposing side, and to do so without official sponsorship or support from the organization or “side” they’re helping. For example, DU was hacked on election day, but the assumption is that it was just a supporter of Trump and not an official campaign activity. There are lots of stories about this sort of activity in Syria and a few from Ukraine as well. That doesn’t fit Fancy Bear at all. They’ve been around a long time using advanced tools. They’re either state funded or some rich guy has been funding them for years in order to hack targets that just happen to align with Russian government interests. I mean, Ukranian artillery was a target. What hacktivist targets that? The bit.ly account used to hack the DNC was used to target 1800 gmail accounts that align with opponents of the Russian government over 6 months in 2015. This is no hacktivism. [https://www.secureworks.com/research/threat-group-4127-targets-google-accounts](https://www.secureworks.com/research/threat-group-4127-targets-google-accounts) ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-announces-russian-sanctions/775863/223 "2017-01-04T13:09:27Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > We should know tomorrow, which is the Wednesday of “…Tuesday or Wednesday…” You remember, its the day when he will reveal his secret knowledge about all this so called “hacking”. I’m ready, got some microwavable crow to eat when he crushes us all with his brilliance. > > 'Course, some people are saying its just a fake-out, something he said to squirm away from a pointed question and what he actually has is a big bag of zilch, and will most likely offer some excuse. Too busy saving jobs, hot comb broken, something like that. People _are_ saying that. I think his ace in the hole was Julian Assage, who was on Fox last night saying it wasn’t Russia, because, like, he’s totally someone you want to put faith in. Trump is tweeting that today. Meanwhile the US government report that Obama asked for will be finished this week. I would say Trump is close to flirting with treason, but that’s not really accurate. We know how he flirts, he’s coming close to grabbing treason by the pussy. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-announces-russian-sanctions/775863/224 "2017-01-04T14:15:44Z")
> [@Fubaya](#): > > Meanwhile the US government report that Obama asked for will be finished this week. Cite? I’d like to know where to look to read it in the next couple of days. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-announces-russian-sanctions/775863/225 "2017-01-04T15:54:02Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > We should know tomorrow, which is the Wednesday of “…Tuesday or Wednesday…” You remember, its the day when he will reveal his secret knowledge about all this so called “hacking”. I’m ready, got some microwavable crow to eat when he crushes us all with his brilliance. > > 'Course, some people are saying its just a fake-out, something he said to squirm away from a pointed question and what he actually has is a big bag of zilch, and will most likely offer some excuse. Too busy saving jobs, hot comb broken, something like that. People _are_ saying that. Perhaps he’s going to send some investigators to Hawaii, uh, I mean Russia, to find the Shocking! Facts! about this case. Expect another report in five, six years tops. ---
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-announces-russian-sanctions/775863/226 "2017-01-04T16:16:13Z")
> [@Fubaya](#): > > I think his ace in the hole was Julian Assage, who was on Fox last night saying it wasn’t Russia, because, like, he’s totally someone you want to put faith in. Trump is tweeting that today. > > Meanwhile the US government report that Obama asked for will be finished this week. (post shortened) While I don’t personally like Julian Assange, WikiLeaks has been pretty good at hacking secure computer systems, and releasing the embarrassing information that they’ve discovered there. All without the help of governments, including the U.S. and Russian governments. WikiLeaks is the bane of governments. WikiLeaks embarrass governments. Governments would like to shut down WikiLeaks. Claims that the Russian government would willingly/knowingly supply information to WikiLeaks seems more like wishful thinking than fact. Assange/WikiLeaks had promised/threatened to expose Hillary secrets. Assange/WikiLeaks delivered as promised. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-announces-russian-sanctions/775863/227 "2017-01-04T16:21:20Z")
I’d like to know where the Republican section of wikileaks was this election, and even more so, I’d like to see the Putin section. Wassamatter, Russian computers and networks are unhackable? ---
**Author:** ![Okrahoma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90db22/32.png) [@Okrahoma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Okrahoma)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-announces-russian-sanctions/775863/228 "2017-01-04T16:42:19Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > I’d like to know where the Republican section of wikileaks was this election, and even more so, I’d like to see the Putin section. Wassamatter, Russian computers and networks are unhackable? Yesterday’s Hannity interview with Assange: “[Wikileaks] received about three pages of information to do with the [Republican National Committee] and Trump [during the campaign], but it was already public somewhere else.” ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-announces-russian-sanctions/775863/229 "2017-01-04T16:42:30Z")
Bit strange to see Julian Assange in the role of Republican darling, when I could swear it wasn’t that long ago that they were clamoring for him to be taken out with a drone strike. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-announces-russian-sanctions/775863/230 "2017-01-04T16:42:31Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > Cite? I’d like to know where to look to read it in the next couple of days. I saw it in an interview with the CIA director that the report is almost finished and will be given to Obama in the next few days. I’m not sure how much will be made public but I expect Obama will release as much as possible. > [@doorhinge](#): > > (post shortened) > > While I don’t personally like Julian Assange, WikiLeaks has been pretty good at hacking secure computer systems, and releasing the embarrassing information that they’ve discovered there. All without the help of governments, including the U.S. and Russian governments. > > WikiLeaks is the bane of governments. WikiLeaks embarrass governments. Governments would like to shut down WikiLeaks. Claims that the Russian government would willingly/knowingly supply information to WikiLeaks seems more like wishful thinking than fact. > > Assange/WikiLeaks had promised/threatened to expose Hillary secrets. Assange/WikiLeaks delivered as promised. What? Wikileaks doesn’t hack anything, they just release things that other people hack. Assange has ties to Russia, takes pro-Russian stances and doesn’t release Russian documents. That’s not proof of anything but he is hardly a bastion of integrity. Here’s a thought experiment. If you were Russia and wanted to release the emails, how would you do it? Wikileaks would be perfect. Would you go visit Assange, show him your GRU identification and hand them over? No you’d use a middle man and that person would lie about where they got them. It could be a journalist, it could be a hacker, it could your agent posing as one. My point is, unless Assange was doing the hacking himself from the Ecuadorian embassy, how can he possibly know where the documents came from? How does the recipient of stolen goods know their chain of custody? And for the love of god, why believe him with no evidence but disbelieve American intelligence and civilian experts who do have evidence? ETA: Assange is also asking trump for a pardon. That’s good enough reason to lie. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-announces-russian-sanctions/775863/231 "2017-01-04T16:50:08Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Bit strange to see Julian Assange in the role of Republican darling, when I could swear it wasn’t that long ago that they were clamoring for him to be taken out with a drone strike. We have always been at peace with Assange. We have always been at war with Eastasia. ---
**Author:** ![Okrahoma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90db22/32.png) [@Okrahoma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Okrahoma)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-announces-russian-sanctions/775863/232 "2017-01-04T16:59:01Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Bit strange to see Julian Assange in the role of Republican darling, when I could swear it wasn’t that long ago that they were clamoring for him to be taken out with a drone strike. The “Can’t we just drone this guy?” came from Hillary. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-announces-russian-sanctions/775863/233 "2017-01-04T17:01:26Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Bit strange to see Julian Assange in the role of Republican darling, when I could swear it wasn’t that long ago that they were clamoring for him to be taken out with a drone strike. Ah, no. That would be Hillary Clinton. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-announces-russian-sanctions/775863/234 "2017-01-04T17:12:39Z")
> [@Okrahoma](#): > > The “Can’t we just drone this guy?” came from Hillary. Snopes: Unproven > **[To Silence Wikileaks, Hillary Clinton Proposed Drone Strike on Julian Assange?](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/julian-assange-drone-strike/)** > > E-mail leaked by WikiLeaks doesn't demonstrate that Hillary Clinton suggested assassinating founder Julian Assange via a drone strike. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-announces-russian-sanctions/775863/235 "2017-01-04T17:22:52Z")
Republicans in 2010: > **[Republicans slam White House over WikiLeaks response](https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/republicans-slam-white-house-over-wikileaks-response/)** > > Washington's debate over WikiLeaks takes a partisan turn, with senior Republicans accusing Obama administration of not taking the threat seriously. > [@](#): > > King also asked the State Department to formally declare WikiLeaks a terrorist organization, a move that would make it a crime for U.S.-based programmers to aid the group and also cut off any donations from the United States. (WikiLeaks accepts PayPal, Visa, and MasterCard donations.) > > Sen. Lindsey Graham, (R-S.C.) offered similar criticisms of the Obama administration, claiming that Democrats have been too slow to respond to the new threat posed by WikiLeaks’ slow drip of disclosures. > > “We’re at war,” Graham said yesterday. “I hope Eric Holder, who’s a good man, will start showing some leadership here and get our laws in line with being at war.” > > And former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a Republican, has said in a Facebook post that “the latest round” of leaks “raises serious questions about the Obama administration’s incompetent handling of this whole fiasco.” Now: Republicans warm up to Assange [http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/301444-republicans-warm-up-to-assange](http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/301444-republicans-warm-up-to-assange) > [@](#): > > Republicans are making common cause with an old enemy: Julian Assange. > > In 2010, prominent figures in the GOP wanted the WikiLeaks founder jailed for releasing thousands of diplomatic cables leaked by former Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning. > > Onetime presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee said the leak “put American lives at risk.” Former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin said Assange had “blood on his hands” and should be “hunted down.” Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) called for the Australian anti-secrecy activist to be tried under the Espionage Act and asked if WikiLeaks could be designated as a terrorist organization. > Fast-forward to 2016, and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his supporters are extolling the release of thousands of emails stolen from the personal account of Democrat Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta. > > “Let me be clear: Thank God for Wikileaks — doing the job that MSM WON’T! #ASSANGE #wikileaks,” Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) tweeted on Monday, using an acronym for “the mainstream media. ---
**Author:** ![Okrahoma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90db22/32.png) [@Okrahoma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Okrahoma)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-announces-russian-sanctions/775863/236 "2017-01-04T17:23:36Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > Snopes: Unproven > > [To Silence Wikileaks, Hillary Clinton Proposed Drone Strike on Julian Assange? | Snopes.com](http://www.snopes.com/julian-assange-drone-strike/) … and Clinton’s non-denial when asked about it. “It would have been a joke, if it had been said, but I don’t recall that.” ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-announces-russian-sanctions/775863/237 "2017-01-04T17:31:28Z")
Without regard to whether the allegation has been proven, the point is that **Vinyl Turnip** was completely wrong in attempting to blame this would-be Assange assassination on the Republicans. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-announces-russian-sanctions/775863/238 "2017-01-04T17:37:53Z")
True enough, I can’t find a Republican calling for a drone strike, but then I haven’t really looked much. But, Republicans wanted Wikileaks declared a terrorist org, and once the US declares you a terrorist, you can be targeted with a drone strike. There is absolutely no way Clinton joking about it could result in a drone strike. ---
**Author:** ![Okrahoma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90db22/32.png) [@Okrahoma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Okrahoma)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-announces-russian-sanctions/775863/239 "2017-01-04T17:42:22Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > There is absolutely no way Clinton joking about it could result in a drone strike. Because, of course, if Clinton said “Can’t we just drone this guy?” it shouldn’t be taken literally. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-announces-russian-sanctions/775863/240 "2017-01-04T17:45:22Z")
OK, he gets a pardon. But no parades! That would be kinda hypocritical. Maybe a little one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-announces-russian-sanctions/775863.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-announces-russian-sanctions/775863.md?page=13)