Obama "Sanctions" Russia

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

CNN's talking head Russia guru says

By declining to match the move made by Washington with tit-for-tat measures, as a Russian president normally would do, Putin is really issuing "an enormous insult" to Obama, she said.
Putin's move also represents a huge challenge to Trump, Dougherty said, because he will come into office "having Vladimir Putin essentially reach across the divide and say 'let's do this together, let's just ignore all of this and go forward'."
Dougherty added, "It's an amazing move and it's classic Putin, I would have to say -- he's a master of doing things that are unexpected, and this is truly unex

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[Triphammer]

in the coming war with China, we'll need Russia on our side.

[Scout26]

Putin plays chess.  Obama plays checkers.

[RoadKingLarry]

I was just about to post that. Whatever else you can say about Putin, the guy knows how to play an elegant game of chess. Of course he's not exactly facing a master opponent.

Putin is playing chess, Obama is playing with himself.

[Perd Hapley]

Putin appears to be ignoring Obama. 

Yes, indeed. Signalling that the lame duck's gestures will not even be taken seriously. Ouch.

[Firethorn]

CNN's talking head Russia guru says

By declining to match the move made by Washington with tit-for-tat measures, as a Russian president normally would do, Putin is really issuing "an enormous insult" to Obama, she said.
Putin's move also represents a huge challenge to Trump, Dougherty said, because he will come into office "having Vladimir Putin essentially reach across the divide and say 'let's do this together, let's just ignore all of this and go forward'."
Dougherty added, "It's an amazing move and it's classic Putin, I would have to say -- he's a master of doing things that are unexpected, and this is truly unex

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Hmm.. 
Isn't it like 3 weeks before Trump is in office?  Assuming he reverses the decision on a semi-prompt basis*, that's basically a vacation for said operatives.  They come home for Christmas, New Years, spend time with family back home, etc...

I'd disagree that this was "unexpected".  Russia knows we have a new president coming in that's of the opposite party, and that Obama is releasing a rash of actions before he leaves office to try to screw things up for the incoming President or implement changes that he wants that he couldn't do before the elections because they'd be unpopular.

So Meh.

*I expect very little "instantly" out of a president.

[French G.]

In a larger sense Putin may have claimed the mantle of senior statesmanship. Ambassador killed, fry Turkey memes a plenty. Instead, he works with them on a Syrian cease fire. This crap, he refuses to publicly respond. Looks more leaderish than reset buttons, red lines, and chopping off allies at the knees in the UN.

[Ben]

It's interesting that we are all of the sudden finding Russian incursions everywhere*. I note the story below doesn't specifically say "Russian government", but rather "Russians". Also it's all Democrat reps talking about "doing something"**. Again, I say this is all becoming an analog of McCarthyism.


* Because every country with an internet connection hasn't been doing this to their adversaries (and friends) since the Internet (and well before).

** Yes, I'm pretty sure the other side would be doing this if roles were reversed. They all certainly are willing to completely muck up operational security for "political security".

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/12/31/russia-linked-malware-found-on-us-electric-companys-laptop.html

[Ben]

And "oops". Update to the story above which was started by the Washington Post is that the ruskies didn't do it after all. More of that fake news "retraction reporting" where the retraction gets buried.

http://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2016/12/31/shocker-russian-hackers-didnt-penetrate-us-electrical-grid-after-all-malware-found-on-laptop/

[Perd Hapley]

And "oops". Update to the story above which was started by the Washington Post is that the ruskies didn't do it after all. More of that fake news "retraction reporting" where the retraction gets buried.

http://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2016/12/31/shocker-russian-hackers-didnt-penetrate-us-electrical-grid-after-all-malware-found-on-laptop/

That's precisely why Limbaugh started calling them "drive-by media." They rush in to slaughter some poor target, and by the time the exonerating truth emerges, they've moved on to the next alleged villain, and the character assassination is never really reversed.

[HeroHog]

CNN uses screenshot from ‘Fallout 4’ game to show how Russians hack things: 

http://bgr.com/2017/01/02/cnn-hacking-fallout-screenshot/

CNN grabbed a screenshot of the hacking mini-game from the extremely popular RPG Fallout 4. First spotted by Reddit, the screenshot shows the menacing neon green letters that gamers will instantly recognize as being from the game. 

[wmenorr67]

Imagine the D's outrage if Bush had done *expletive deleted*it like this just before he turned the reigns over to Obama.

[Monkeyleg]

Imagine the D's outrage if Bush had done *expletive deleted*it like this just before he turned the reigns over to Obama.

In the weeks before Bill Clinton took office, there was a major issue that President GHW Bush had to act on. He didn't want to box in Clinton as Obama has done to Trump, so GHWB called Clinton to advise him, and ask for his input on how he'd like the issue handled.

That's the difference between Obama and people with class (and the interests of the country at heart).

[bedlamite]

I wonder if the White house staff is going to steal the "T" from all the keyboards when they leave.

[Ben]

I wonder if the White house staff is going to steal the "T" from all the keyboards when they leave.

I was also wondering that. I'm figuring they'll do worse than the Clinton adolescents did. Of course the MSM will only label it as "good natured hijinks". If R staffers do it then it's destruction of property and sabotage.

[RoadKingLarry]

I wish the Russians/Assange would hack Obama's college records. I bet that would be a shitshow!

[Fitz]

Russians or no, i'm getting irritated at the constant pushing of the "OMG HACKED ELECTION" narrative.

Until someone shows me that emails were manufactured or the information within was manufactured, the election wasn't "hacked" by anyone.

You get caught cheating on your spouse, the nationality of the PI that caught you shouldn't be relevant.

[RoadKingLarry]

Russians or no, i'm getting irritated at the constant pushing of the "OMG HACKED ELECTION" narrative.

Until someone shows me that emails were manufactured or the information within was manufactured, the election wasn't "hacked" by anyone.

You get caught cheating on your spouse, the nationality of the PI that caught you shouldn't be relevant.

It's the democrats, with them the facts of the issue are irrelevant, it is the seriousness of the allegations that matters.

[roo_ster]

Russians or no, i'm getting irritated at the constant pushing of the "OMG HACKED ELECTION" narrative.

Until someone shows me that emails were manufactured or the information within was manufactured, the election wasn't "hacked" by anyone.

You get caught cheating on your spouse, the nationality of the PI that caught you shouldn't be relevant.

Bulverism.  Attacking the motives/means/person while ignoring the real issue.

http://www.unz.com/isteve/bulverism/

The avoidance of object-level discussion in favor of meta-level discussion...

The Bulverist assumes a speaker’s argument is invalid or false and then explains why the speaker came to make that mistake, attacking the speaker or the speaker’s motive. The term “Bulverism” was coined by C. S. Lewis to poke fun at a very serious error in thinking that, he alleges, recurs often in a variety of religious, political, and philosophical debates.

Do read the whole bit at the linky, it is very interesting.