Sunday, May 07, 2017

Did French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron outwit the Russian hackers? He must have, he just won. Update!

Nice try Vlad.
Courtesy of the Daily Beast:  

In the last hours before midnight on Friday, just before a campaigning blackout imposed by French electoral law in anticipation of the crucial vote on Sunday, somebody dumped nine gigabytes of emails and documents supposedly purloined from the campaign of leading presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron. 

It looked like, and almost certainly was, a last-minute bid to tip the scales in favor of the centrist Macron’s opponent, the nativist, populist Marine Le Pen, who has received more-than-tacit endorsements from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who received her at the Kremlin, and U.S. President Donald Trump, who has declared his appreciation of her as the “strongest” candidate. 

Macron, by contrast, is favored by those who want a strong European Union, a strong NATO, and a France looking to the future rather than clinging to the fearful and fictional nostalgia promulgated by Le Pen. As the news broke, suspicion focused on the same “Fancy Bear” Russian hackers who fiddled with the American presidential campaign last year. 

As The Daily Beast reported 10 days earlier, they have been working hard for the election of anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, anti-European Union, anti-euro, anti-NATO, anti-American, Pro-Trump Le Pen. 

Literally at the 11th hour, before the blackout would silence it, the Macron campaign issued a statement saying it had been hacked and many of the documents that were dumped on the American 4Chan site and re-posted by Wikileaks were fakes. 

The mainstream French media carried the Macron campaign statement, but virtually nothing else. In addition to the normal proscription of campaign “propaganda” on election eve, the government issued a statement saying specifically that anyone disseminating the materials in this dump in France could be liable to prosecution, and calling on the media to shoulder their “responsibility” by steering clear of them.

As it turned out part of the Macron campaign's strategy was to create false identities and allow themselves to be "phished" and then to leak false information which would find itself among the data that the hackers compiled and then weaponized to use against Macron.

In the end nobody could really tell what was real, and what was false.

Which means that the impact of the hack was negligible.

And it worked, because just a little while ago Macron won the election and is now the President of France.

Courtesy of The Atlantic: 

French voters handed Emmanuel Macron, the independent candidate, a decisive victory in the presidential runoff Sunday over Marine Le Pen, the far-right candidate, buoying Europe’s political establishment that had watched with despair as populist movements threatened to derail the European experiment.

This is very good news for France, for the European Union, and for Democracy.

And it is very bad news for the Russians and those who are trying to destabilize the western democracies.

Update: It appears that Trump has decided to take the high road for a change.
You just know this is eating him up inside.

35 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:42 AM

    Yay! Hope it is all true, it is! He won! Now, back to our shi//y govt. Kussner invest in a e5 visa and live in usa. Pos kushners!
    We have just got to impeach orange turd TODAY!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:49 PM

      YOU can't...but you sure can get your Congresscritter's phone or email and urge the to do so.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous10:54 AM

    The France voters showed themselves to be so much smarter than those in America!

    Their Dictator lost in France where Trump, the Dictator won! I'm so happy for their country as I hardly recognize our own any longer!

    Trump needs to be IMPEACHED before he takes our country down further than he has already. He is disliked by the majority in our own country and the world despises him!

    And, thank you President Obama for endorsing France's winner and your being such a wonderful representative of America! Also, congratulations on your Kennedy Foundation Award you will be receiving today! I'll eagerly watch the T.V. coverage of the presentation to you! Your Award is richly deserved!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:47 AM

      Yeah but no, french voters are far from voting smart. Here's how it happens:

      Most of them have a favorite candidate but don't vote because it's a hassle/"he'll win anyway" crap.

      Then when their candidate gets stomped out and all is left is someguy and someone a moustache away from full extended hand salute. They throw a tantrum and decide not to vote/vote blank (which serves no purpose as it is not recognized), thus favoring the far right, because during both elections the fanbase of the moustacheless candidate actually vote.

      On the second election people who actually care vote against the moustache challenged candidate because the other guy can't be worse.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:30 PM

      Good for France! They are NOT following in the footsteps of America and Donald Trump. Smart folks! I commend them!

      Delete
  3. ibwilliamsi11:07 AM

    Now watch a Trump make a total ass of himself by insulting the landslide winner...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:53 AM

      He already congratulated him.

      Guess you got a little ahead of yourself there eh?

      Delete
    2. SallyinMI12:43 PM

      You think Trump even remembers who he endorsed? Or why? He does what he is told by Bannon and the ever more evil Jarod. I doubt he could even pronounce Emmanuel's name properly.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:58 PM

      Easy there Sally, don't blow a gasky.

      Delete
    4. 11:53/12:58

      Easy to blow a gasket because we just get so tired of winning!
      And we are just warming up.
      Comrade.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous6:21 PM

      "because we just get so tired of winning!"

      Hahahaaa, assuming you are referring to politics, what exactly have you 'won' lately?

      Delete
  4. Anonymous11:15 AM

    Either the French learned from our terrible mistake or they were smarter to begin with. Whatever the reason, I wish them and their new president the best of luck.

    I sincerely hope that his election marks the beginning of the end for radical right wing politicians and the ability of Russia to secretly control the elections of other countries.

    In the meantime, we need to work towards fixing the disaster here at home by getting rid of Trump, his corrupt administration, and the majority of the Republicans in Congress and state capitols.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:05 PM

      Why not both?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous3:25 PM

      I'm hearing Putin is responsible for the rise of the Far Right in Greece (Golden Dawn) and in Hungary.

      Forewarned is forearmed, as they say.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous11:34 AM

    The French say NO thanks mr rump. We don't do buffoon liars.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:48 PM

      I beleive that is written Mr. T.Rump.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous11:34 AM

    No to putins holster. The French don't like Donald john trump the liar.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous11:35 AM

    More sanctions on Russia.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous11:36 AM

    Any country with any sense will not talk to trump at all.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous12:21 PM

    Somebody else wrote it.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous12:28 PM

    Yea for France and sorry for America who has Dictator Trump as their horrible leader! America is in big trouble as Trump continues pushing North Korea for all out WWWIII.

    Trump needs to be IMPEACED! What is wrong w/the Republican party - they are just as bad as he and all of them need to be voted out of office as they come up for reelection. They are ALL anti American!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I received the election results at 2:00pm my time in Delaware. I've been following this since the first round of votes and learned about the dump of hacked info last night - incredibly, they waited just 4 minutes before midnight to release the info - which gave Macron only 4 minutes to release a statement on what happened before the mandatory 48 hour blackout was to begin on Friday.

    Based on the coverage I've seen in the past week, the trump situation did influence the voters who understood the risk and apparently learned from our mistakes. Marine Le Pen began to distance herself from cheeto in the weeks leading up to the election. She's just as vile and disgusting as trump but was still able to capture 37% of the votes. I'm so envious of their results compared to our bastard in Chief.

    It will be interesting to see how cheeto conducts himself when he meets with President Macron later this month on climate change and he agreement signed under Obama's administration. Cheeto wants to withdraw from that agreement and I'm sure their young president will learn quickly how effin dumb, bombastic and narcissistic the buffoon is.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. An European Viewpoint5:17 AM

      Oh, he already knows. We all know about Trump and despise him accordingly.

      Delete
  12. Anonymous12:36 PM

    Who the HELL says "I look very much forward . . ."? He is such a clown, can't even write a congratulatory statement properly. Aazig that he did not say "I BIGLY look very much forward . . ."

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous1:11 PM

    The French outsmarted the Russian hackers.In France tRump has a 87% disapproval rating. Vive La France!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Olivia1:45 PM

    "You just know this is eating him up inside."
    And you just know that he had nothing to do with that tweet, because this is eating him up inside. No way could he put his ego aside to tweet anything like that.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous2:19 PM

    It'.s easier to outwit a known enemy vs not knowing. Bad enough when people have to fight against their known opponent vs a hacker with connections to hide it.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous2:21 PM

    Congrats t France for choosing freedom over Russian control.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous2:21 PM

    The failed international republican party of liars lost again. The beginning of the end. each doomed day will bring disgrace and embarrassment to trump and putin. Both are useless idiots to the world.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous3:08 PM

    Why do these foreign countries get the good looking presidents (France) or PM (Canada), while we get lard ass trump?

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous3:14 PM

    What a fun job it would be to create fake campaign conspiracies to show up the Russian hackers and Julian Assange as the stooges they are.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous6:21 PM

      I like how you think.

      Delete
  20. Anonymous5:29 PM

    do wonky eyes run in the family?

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BTly2kkBnBd/?taken-by=bsmp2&hl=en

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iBWABNSUOS8/VYwKBjqRRbI/AAAAAAAAHLc/OypYXXR2gDY/s400/Bristol%2Bcross%2Beyed.jpg

    https://malialitman.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/palin-valley-trash-family.jpg

    http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-864yvzXGaKw/TidEALbs5tI/AAAAAAAABTg/APJLOinF_4w/s1600/sarah+in+hawaii.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  21. Thank goodness!

    I hope Angela Merkel is studying his strategy. She is going to need it. Putin is going to gun for her like fish in a barrel.

    ReplyDelete
  22. An European Viewpoint5:15 AM

    I'm French. Outwitting most French people may be a bit harder than outwitting most American people, thanks to our (still) better education system and our higher ratio in atheists.

    Our education system is also under attack, but since we sometimes elect socialists, it's not as broken as yours yet - so even our worst morons get a tinge of education in their 12 years of mandatory schooling, and it shows in elections.

    As for our ultra-right wing and fascist party (the justly reviled Le Pen party), do you know that its policies are rather quite to the left of the GOP's ?

    ReplyDelete

Don't feed the trolls!
It just goes directly to their thighs.