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Botany

(70,291 posts)
Mon Apr 22, 2019, 06:46 AM Apr 2019

Daily Kos: Wisconsin's Russia-GOP connection. It goes well beyond poll data in Mueller Report

It wasn't just the Presidential race we lost but senate races too. Russ Feingold was at >90%
of winning back his seat.

*******
The Mueller Report had plenty of information as to how Russians worked to subvert our elections and gained influence in our current US government. But what jumps out to me is how much of that story and related Russian affairs connected back to Wisconsin.

Our state appears in the Mueller Report as one of a handful in the Midwest that former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort passed information about to a Russian intelligence agent. The report indicates that this was done to tell the Russians the best way to boost Trump's chances in those states.

snip

Also don't forget that a couple of Wisconsin politicians knew about these Russian efforts before the 2016 election, but hid it from unsuspecting Wisconsin voters. In late Summer 2016, President Obama organized a "Gang of 12" to let them know about potential Russian hacking and interference, and 2 of the members of that meeting were then-House Speaker Paul Ryan, and Senate Homeland Security Chair Ron Johnson. That meeting that was kept from public knowledge before the elections after complaints from Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell.


snip

In addition, Ron Johnson was 1 of several GOP Senators who decided last year's US Independence Day was a great time...to visit the Russians. Sounds like investigative media might want to ask some questions of these Sconnie Republicans, why many seem to have no problem hanging out with high-level Russian officials, and ask what's being done to prevent Wisconsinites from being targeted and propagandized against in 2020. The (non)-answers they give might be quite illuminating.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/4/21/1852036/-Wisconsin-s-Russia-GOP-connection-It-goes-well-beyond-poll-data-in-Mueller-Report

25 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Daily Kos: Wisconsin's Russia-GOP connection. It goes well beyond poll data in Mueller Report (Original Post) Botany Apr 2019 OP
Subpoena Ryan to trstify... n/t bluecollar2 Apr 2019 #1
+1, ... PUBLICLY !! ... uponit7771 Apr 2019 #2
No way we have fair elections in the US, watoos Apr 2019 #3
+1000 FakeNoose Apr 2019 #9
I get upset when people say trust the system, vote Tech Apr 2019 #16
I agree with you! Lifelong Protester Apr 2019 #25
Why are we not having committee hearings on election security? rainin Apr 2019 #4
Russians didn't hack our election systems just for the fun of it. Lonestarblue Apr 2019 #5
What we do know about Wisconsin 2016 Botany Apr 2019 #6
Thanks for these links. It seems clear that voter suppression elected Trump in Wisconsin. Lonestarblue Apr 2019 #8
Voter suppression and the magic of electronic voting machines and central tabulators too Botany Apr 2019 #10
Quislings, all of them Maine-i-acs Apr 2019 #7
Bill Nelson in Florida, too DFW Apr 2019 #11
I might be wrong but one of the reasons that the GOP is fighting so hard to stop ... Botany Apr 2019 #12
Ohio has had voting irregularities for a long time DFW Apr 2019 #13
I know about OH 2004 Botany Apr 2019 #14
I was cautiously optimistic when I went to bed that night DFW Apr 2019 #20
FYI Botany Apr 2019 #21
O'Dell, that's the guy DFW Apr 2019 #22
My bank uses Diebold for their ATMs .... years ago I used my debit card to buy a pack of gum and ... Botany Apr 2019 #23
I wonder if the connection between Russia and the Koch brothers has been looked into. world wide wally Apr 2019 #15
Whoever controls the states, controls the votes... PeeJ52 Apr 2019 #17
Greenwald and Snowden were unavailable for comment Blue_Tires Apr 2019 #18
Follow the money. yardwork Apr 2019 #19
Good post - chilling facts - Thank you. No wonder the reThuglicans never talk about Russia c-rational Apr 2019 #24
 

watoos

(7,142 posts)
3. No way we have fair elections in the US,
Mon Apr 22, 2019, 07:30 AM
Apr 2019

and Wisconsin is proof positive.

No way Scott Walker won that recall election. The state Supreme Court elections were also rigged.

Go to paper ballots and watch what happens.

FakeNoose

(32,351 posts)
9. +1000
Mon Apr 22, 2019, 08:45 AM
Apr 2019

I wish we were doing paper ballots in Pennsylvania as well. But Gov. Tom Wolf has decided on replacing all of electronic voting machines with a new secure system, so that's the way we're going. Fingers crossed and seriously hoping we're not stepping back 20 years.

Tech

(1,765 posts)
16. I get upset when people say trust the system, vote
Mon Apr 22, 2019, 09:17 AM
Apr 2019

The system has not worked in Wisconsin for many years. Trump is coming to Green Bay next week for a reason. I think his handlers may have set it up.

There are a lot of republicans up here, but I wonder how many have moved here. Ron Johnson did. The Koch brothers did their job well up here.

It's a tough state to be a democrat, but the tides may finally be changing. The supreme court has been rigged.

rainin

(3,010 posts)
4. Why are we not having committee hearings on election security?
Mon Apr 22, 2019, 08:09 AM
Apr 2019

We could subpoena Secretaries of State, republican Governors, security experts. Make it public. Talk about the 2016 election (and previous elections) and the current state. Expose ways republicans have resisted making elections secure (and fair).

Lonestarblue

(9,880 posts)
5. Russians didn't hack our election systems just for the fun of it.
Mon Apr 22, 2019, 08:18 AM
Apr 2019

Using polling data Manafort provided, hackers could have de-registered specific voters. To my knowledge, no study has ever been made of the number of people in the three key states who voted provisional ballots (or none) because they were supposedly not registered. There is very little to stop them from doing the same in 2020, or even flipping votes. The voting machine companies refuse to allow independent experts to review their post-election programming to see what changes might have been made. States need to pass laws that companies cannot avoid this audit if they want to sell machines to the state.

We already know that some older voting machines have “bugs” that flip votes. I think around 70 counties in Texas use the some machines that flipped a straight Democratic ticket vote from Beto to Cruz. This issue has been known for a decade, but the Republican Secretary of State refused to do anything about it, calling it just voter error. Funny, though, how it always flipped a Democratic choice to a Republican vote.

Botany

(70,291 posts)
10. Voter suppression and the magic of electronic voting machines and central tabulators too
Mon Apr 22, 2019, 08:49 AM
Apr 2019

I followed the Walker recall race and I have no doubt that that vetoes way dirty.

DFW

(54,052 posts)
11. Bill Nelson in Florida, too
Mon Apr 22, 2019, 08:51 AM
Apr 2019

Even the Washington Post gave him 4 pinocchios when Bill mentioned Russian meddling in his 0.1% "loss" to Rick Scott. At the time Bill couldn't use classified information to back up his claim, which the Post then called bogus. Mueller proved him right.

I think we must be starting to resemble the medical examiner in a homicide case. He knows everything--just a day too late.

Botany

(70,291 posts)
12. I might be wrong but one of the reasons that the GOP is fighting so hard to stop ...
Mon Apr 22, 2019, 08:57 AM
Apr 2019

... the investigations into Trump and the elections is that it would expose the massive
amount of election thefts at the machine levels. In Ohio we had Sherrod Brown easily
win re-election but then 250,000 of those same voters then turned around and voted for
conservative republicans for Governor, A.G., & Sec. of State.

Trump let the cat out of the bag when he said something like, "well funny things happen w/
those voting machines." rough quote

DFW

(54,052 posts)
13. Ohio has had voting irregularities for a long time
Mon Apr 22, 2019, 09:08 AM
Apr 2019

Brown was such an obvious favorite for re-election that he would have mounted a serious and well-funded challenge if he had "lost." Going as far back as 2004 with Blackwell as both Ohio SoS and simultaneously Bush re-election chairman for Ohio, it was obvious what would happen despite Kerry's lead there. Not only did one of the manufacturers of the electronic vote counting machines say he would "deliver Ohio for Bush," the ONLY on of those machines to be forensically examined after the election gave Bush 3000 voted in a precinct with 600 registered voters.

A rare incidence of truth coming from a Republican White House--election day, 2004:

Botany

(70,291 posts)
14. I know about OH 2004
Mon Apr 22, 2019, 09:10 AM
Apr 2019

I worked for Kerry @ his state HQ. The things I saw and heard still haunt me.

The exit polls clearly had Kerry winning.

DFW

(54,052 posts)
20. I was cautiously optimistic when I went to bed that night
Mon Apr 22, 2019, 09:29 AM
Apr 2019

I'm on Central European Time, so I was 6 hours ahead of Eastern Time.

I should have remembered what my brother told me two years earlier when the first irregularities showed up after the first use of the machines. He said, "give me a laptop and a cell phone, and I'll make any of those machines give you any result you want." He does secret projects for DARPA, and is, to put it mildly, computer-savvy. The technology of the voting machines, from what I heard, has hardly been updated since then. If it's public knowledge to us, then it's public knowledge at Savushkina Street 55, too.

Botany

(70,291 posts)
21. FYI
Mon Apr 22, 2019, 09:39 AM
Apr 2019

In a fall 2003 fundraising letter sent to Republicans, from Diebold CEO Walden O'Dell:

"I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president."

DFW

(54,052 posts)
22. O'Dell, that's the guy
Mon Apr 22, 2019, 09:48 AM
Apr 2019

Oh, he helped, alright. Of all times for a Republican to honor a commitment!

Botany

(70,291 posts)
23. My bank uses Diebold for their ATMs .... years ago I used my debit card to buy a pack of gum and ...
Mon Apr 22, 2019, 09:54 AM
Apr 2019

... 10 minutes later I was at an ATM to get some cash and I printed out a statement of my last
transactions and the $1.29 showed up in my statement but at the same time Diebold was saying
they couldn't possible produce a paper trail for the voters.

BTW In 2005 I was at a social function where Wally O'Dell's daughter was also in attendance and
I got introduced to her ... I played nice but I wanted to scream.

c-rational

(2,581 posts)
24. Good post - chilling facts - Thank you. No wonder the reThuglicans never talk about Russia
Mon Apr 22, 2019, 10:07 AM
Apr 2019

interference, nor for that matter electronic voting machines. Go paper ballots.

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