Law, Power, and Justice

MONDAY 12 AUGUST 2024

MORNING NEWS NOTES: Trump hacked, Hamas says no to Thursday, arms to Middle East

Trump campaign hack, Iran threatens to attack, Ukraine incursion into Russia,

Election Hacking

The hacking into the 2016 election was not taken seriously, even by Obama, who knew about it at the time.  So certain were he and the other establishment Democrats that Hillary was going to win, he reportedly told his staff that Hillary could deal with the problem after she was in office.  I will never understand this and I will never forgive it.  The Obama administration allowed Mitch McConnell to bully them out of telling the American people.  I will never forgive them for that move either.

But, unfortunately, the Harris campaign has just brough on a new batch of former Clinton and Obama people.  I can’t see how this will bode well.  It always surprises me to see these political analysts on corporate television opining about how this or that campaign should conduct itself when they have been part of two or three major campaign losses. 

The Guardian is reporting this morning that Microsoft released a report on Friday saying it had discovered evidence of Iranian hackers trying to break into the email account of a “high-ranking” official on the US presidential campaign.  The U.S. has not confirmed that hacking took place (much like they did in 2016). 

And, in 2016 the Trump campaign both solicited and accepted the hacking assistance from Russia. 

(Note: There’s a beautiful, fat, proud, young cardinal male on our birdfeeder.)

Israel

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is reporting that the U.S. has sent a missile submarine to the Middle East as tensions grow about a possible attack by Iran directly on Israel (WSJ 8/12/24)l. 

Israelis order more Gaza evacuations (Reuters)

Hamas has announced that it rejects an invitation to participate in an Egypt, Qatar and the US round of negotiations over Gaza planned for Thursday (Axios)