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The Russians did it, because they want Trump to be president, because he\u2019s said he won\u2019t necessarily defend NATO countries or other victims of Russian expansionism.<\/p>\n
The Russians did it, because they want Trump to be president, and they know he\u2019ll be beholden to them, because Russian investors hold large stakes in his real estate projects.<\/p>\n
The Russians did it, but as a warning shot to Hillary that they have lots more dirt they\u2019re capable of releasing; they\u2019re blackmailing her with the threat to release the deleted e-mails from her server, either before or after the election, if she doesn\u2019t cooperate.<\/p>\n
The Russians didn\u2019t do it, that is, not the Russian government; it was either a lone Russian hacker or another entity entirely, putting cyrillic metadata onto the files to make it appear the fault of the Russkies.<\/p>\n
Whatever the true story is, this is what\u2019s odd:<\/p>\n
if this was calculated to hand the victory to Donald Trump, it\u2019s odd timing. \u00a0It\u2019s called an October Surprise for a reason \u2014 the leak just before the convention will, in the end, turn out to have relatively little impact. \u00a0It\u2019s already gotten buried, and few people are interested outside a narrow group of bloggers\/tweeters, and the Dems and the media have already changed the narrative to an old-fashioned Soviet espionage story.<\/p>\n
Maybe this is all the leaker has. \u00a0Maybe it came not from hacking into the system, but from a mole at the DNC. \u00a0Everyone on the Right is pretty much convinced that the major state espionage services had hacked into Clinton\u2019s private e-mail server long ago, so the \u201cmole at the DNC\u201d theory suggests that there is nothing more to be released because this particular leaker isn\u2019t affiliated with those groups.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, if there is more to come, then perhaps this was a test, aiming at figuring out the media response to\u00a0ensure better effectiveness of the next round.<\/p>\n
As to the \u201cwho\u201d, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s entirely obvious that Putin would want Trump president; after all, he is a loose cannon, and Clinton a known quantity, who hasn\u2019t exactly been hampering Putin\u2019s ambitions, what with\u00a0the \u201creset\u201d and all. \u00a0And the U.S. under Obama has more or less ceded Syria to the Russians. \u00a0Seems to me that Putin wins either way. \u00a0And if he did, isn\u2019t he more calculating than to orchestrate an e-mail release that would rebound on him?<\/p>\n
On the other hand, given that the general flavor of the e-mails is, \u201cSanders supporters were robbed,\u201d couldn\u2019t there have been multiple other potential leakers, angry at the outcome of the primary?<\/p>\n
And yet \u2014<\/p>\n
you see that I haven\u2019t linked to anything.<\/p>\n
I hate conspiracy theories, speculations that there are secret plots, more than meets the eye. \u00a0So often they\u2019re the refuge of people who can\u2019t handle the actual facts in front of their noses \u2014 at an extreme, preposterous theories like \u201c9\/11 was an inside job\u201d or \u201cSandy Hook was a false flag operation.\u201d<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve had so many leaks \u2014 from genuinely government information such as the massive Ed Snowden release to the diplomatic cables to the Panama Papers, to the Sony leak, and latter were\u00a0not government leaks at all. \u00a0Imagine that Clinton\u2019s name was found in the Pentagon Papers, as involved in unsavory offshore dealings for the Clinton family money. \u00a0Would releasing this information constitute \u201cinterference\u201d in the election? \u00a0What about garden-variety opposition research? \u00a0Or is our only complaint that we think it was foreigners rather than Americans?<\/p>\n
Will this leak actually change the course of the election? \u00a0Doubtful \u2014 have you yet heard of anyone saying, \u201cI was going to vote for Hillary but I changed my mind because Democratic political operatives cynically helped Clinton while claiming to be neutral, and called Hispanics brand-loyal taco bowls\u201d?<\/p>\n
Anyway, what do you think?<\/p>\n
UPDATE:<\/p>\n