quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

quote:

Originally posted by Mutiny:
In Paris, my 6 year old in first grade came home from school today telling me that her teacher was talking about the election and is voting for "the man" because he wants to take care of the people from other countries coming into France. My daughter said to her teacher that is not right, and that France is throwing its history away with him. I was not at all surprised my daughter voiced that opinion in class since she has told her class often that the USA is the best country in the world and that she likes President "Donald". Not sure her French school teacher knows what to think of our daughter.

I give this post a thumbs up. Chapeau to your daughter.

Thanks! She's a badass in my book and I am extremely proud of her.
This Summer when we head back stateside for vacation, she's turning 7 and I'm hoping to start her at the shooting range. Her younger sister (5) is no less a badass, but I think maybe too immature for the range.

Well how about that, huh?

Déjà vu.

Macron's French presidential campaign emails leaked online

REUTERS/Regis Duvignau
By Eric Auchard and Bate Felix | FRANKFURT/PARIS

Leading French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron's campaign said on Friday it had been the target of a "massive" computer hack that dumped its campaign emails online 1-1/2 days before voters choose between the centrist and his far-right rival Marine Le Pen.

Macron, who extended his lead in the polls over Le Pen on Friday, is seen as the frontrunner in an election billed as the most important in France in decades.

Some nine gigabytes of data were posted by a user called EMLEAKS to Pastebin, a document-sharing site that allows anonymous posting. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for posting the data or if any of it was genuine.

In a statement, Macron's political movement En Marche! (Onwards!) confirmed that it had been hacked.

"The En Marche! Movement has been the victim of a massive and co-ordinated hack this evening which has given rise to the diffusion on social media of various internal information," the statement said.

An interior ministry official declined to comment, citing French rules that forbid any commentary liable to influence an election, and which took effect at midnight on Friday (2200 GMT).

The French presidential election commission said in statement that it would hold a meeting later on Saturday after Macron's campaign informed it about the hack and publishing of the data.

It urged the media to be cautious about publishing details of the emails given that campaigning had ended, and publishing it could lead to criminal charges.

Comments about the email dump began to appear on Friday evening just hours before the official ban on campaigning began. The ban is due to stay in place until the last polling stations close on Sunday at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT).

Opinion polls show independent centrist Macron is set to beat National Front candidate Le Pen in Sunday's second round of voting, in what is seen to be France's most important election in decades. The latest surveys show him winning with about 62 percent of the vote.

Former economy minister Macron's team has complained in the past about attempts to hack its emails during a fraught campaign, blaming Russian interests in part for the cyber attacks.

On April 26, the team said it had been the target of a series of attempts to steal email credentials since January, but that the perpetrators had so far failed to compromise any campaign data.

In February, the Kremlin denied that it was behind any such attacks, even though Macron's camp renewed complaints against Russian media and a hackers' group operating in Ukraine.

In its statement on Friday, En Marche! said that the documents released online showed only the normal functionings of a presidential campaign, but that authentic documents had been mixed on social media with fake ones to sow "doubt and misinformation".

RELATED COVERAGE

French government says will not comment on reported Macron campaign hacking
Macron campaign says massive email leaks meant to undermine it
"The seriousness of this event is certain and we shall not tolerate that the vital interests of democracy be put at risk," it added.

The French presidential election campaign is not the first to be overshadowed by accusations of manipulation via computer hacking and cyber-attacks.

U.S. intelligence agencies said in January that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered hacking of the Democratic National Committee and the chairman of Hillary Clinton's Democratic campaign to influence the election on behalf of Donald Trump, her Republican rival who went on to win the U.S. presidency.

On Friday night as the #Macronleaks hashtag buzzed around social media, Florian Philippot, deputy leader of the National Front, asked on Twitter; "Will Macronleaks teach us something that investigative journalism has deliberately killed?"

Macron spokesman Sylvain Fort, in a response on Twitter, called Philippot's tweet "vile".

(Reporting by Eric Auchard in Frankfurt and Michel Rose and Bate Felix in Paris; Writing by Andrew Callus; Editing by Sandra Maler)

http://www.reuters.com/article...-leaks-idUSKBN1812AZ

Putin has discovered he can destroy western democracies without firing a shot. There are Quislings everywhere, and all he has to do is help them out.
By seeding dissension,he has weakened NATO and the European Union, and by helping elect Trump he has removed American leadership from the picture.

quote:

Originally posted by MTJbyrd:
Putin has discovered he can destroy western democracies without firing a shot. There are Quislings everywhere, and all he has to do is help them out.
By seeding dissension,he has weakened NATO and the European Union, and by helping elect Trump he has removed American leadership from the picture.

Really, dude?

Were you ready for Hillary fuckstick? Is it euphoric being so stupid? Do you honestly think Hillary would have been better for American liberty and American interests abroad? Seriously?

quote:

Originally posted by MTJbyrd:
Putin has discovered he can destroy western democracies without firing a shot. There are Quislings everywhere, and all he has to do is help them out.
By seeding dissension,he has weakened NATO and the European Union, and by helping elect Trump he has removed American leadership from the picture.

Oh The Boogey Man? NO! So How Did Putin Help Elect Trump? Some details please for such an accusation.

This is internal caused by the candidates incompetence. How can they run a country when they can't safely run a campaign?

quote:

Originally posted by MTJbyrd:
Putin has discovered he can destroy western democracies without firing a shot. There are Quislings everywhere, and all he has to do is help them out.
By seeding dissension,he has weakened NATO and the European Union, and by helping elect Trump he has removed American leadership from the picture.

LOL. You must be a mainstream media consumer. Your Senator Feinstein is on the record, just the other day, as saying there is NO evidence of any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Show us your evidence for the baseless claim you're making.

Feinstein: No Evidence of Collusion Between Trump Associates and Russia



Watch the video, Wolf quickly ends the interview and moves on when she categorically states that there is no evidence to support such a claim.


Link to original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BS5amEq7Fc

quote:

Putin has discovered he can destroy western democracies without firing a shot.

Western democracies are not being destroyed by Putin. Western democracies are decaying, internally, because the people have become dependent on big government which promises the people much more than it can deliver. Many people have discovered that it's easier to vote for a living than to work for a living. Socialism fails... every time it's tried.

Democracy is an inherently unstable form of government. The founders called it "factions" or the tyranny of the majority. The property rights of the minority are not protected in a democracy.

Democracy is not freedom. Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to eat for lunch. Freedom comes from the recognition of certain rights which may not be taken, not even by a 99% vote.

That's why our founders devised a Republic. Watch the video on page 3 of this thread.

Leading by example may help Europe although it's likely too late for many countries there. The immigration/refugee issues are strangling them. If Europeans can view the USA doing well maybe they will vote accordingly. 8 years of Barry vs 4 years + of republican presidency may prove out and be convincing. As for MTJbyrd, you need to get out and actually look around, talk to the working class etc....Trump was ELECTED because people are fed the fuck up with the lies and bullshit that you subscribe to.

Quoted by Reuters, the French election commission said in a statement that "on the eve of the most important election for our institutions, the commission calls on everyone present on internet sites and social networks, primarily the media, but also all citizens, to show responsibility and not to pass on this content, so as not to distort the sincerity of the ballot." Following a rushed meeting on Saturday morning, the commission which supervises the electoral process, said that the data been "fraudulently obtained and could be mixed with false information." It is unclear, however, how it hopes to enforce any punitive claims, especially when much of the initial document distribution appears to have taken place offshore.

Domestically, in a similar reaction to the US media's response to the Podesta emails, French TV news channels chose not to mention the hack, although the left-leading Liberation prominently featured the news on its website. Liberation author Cedric Mathiot wrote that the leak, and its timing, "wants to create chaos" adding that the information was distributed in an "unethical method."

On Friday night, as news of what has been hashtagged as @MacronLeaks on twitter spread, Florian Philippot, deputy leader of the National Front, tweeted "Will Macronleaks teach us something that investigative journalism has deliberately kept silent?" In a tweeted response, Macron spokesman Sylvain Fort called Philippot's tweet "vile".

In another parallel to the Clinton leaks, Macron's En Marche! party said the leaked documents dealt with "the normal operations of a campaign and included some information on campaign accounts." It said the hackers had mixed false documents with authentic ones to "sow doubt and disinformation."

But in the biggest parallel to the Clinton hacking, few have touched upon the actual contents of the documents, which some say confirm prior allegations of illicit financial dealings and offshore accounts, and instead merely sought to attack the messenger. Indeed, as journalist Kim Zetter noted overnight, "Telling journos to not report on hacked emails misses point that nearly all important leaks occur because someone broke law or a contract"

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/...ens-criminal-charges

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:

quote:

Putin has discovered he can destroy western democracies without firing a shot.

Western democracies are not being destroyed by Putin. Western democracies are decaying, internally, because the people have become dependent on big government which promises the people much more than it can deliver. Many people have discovered that it's easier to vote for a living than to work for a living. Socialism fails... every time it's tried.

Democracy is an inherently unstable form of government. The founders called it "factions" or the tyranny of the majority. The property rights of the minority are not protected in a democracy.

Democracy is not freedom. Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to eat for lunch. Freedom comes from the recognition of certain rights which may not be taken, not even by a 99% vote.

That's why our founders devised a Republic. Watch the video on page 3 of this thread.

Preach it.

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:

quote:

Originally posted by airsoft guy:
How about we fix our own house before meddling in the homes of others?

I don't like the idea of foreigners messing around with our politics, I can't imagine many around the world would like us doing the same to them.

+111111111111

Agreed

Even if they wanted our help, we should probably define what "left" and "right" are. Here in the US it's hard enough to have a conversation with someone because of how utterly fubar the definitions are, mainly because of mainstream usage that's erroneous.

Currently, mainstream usage of left is communists/anarchists. Right is nazis and religious zealots.

What utter nonsense. How can you have a cogent political discussion with anyone when the political spectrum is a circle that always leads back to total government control.

If anything people need to be challenged as to what they mean first. Left? Total government. Right? No government. Don't tell me that "hard right" is nazis and then expect me to have a discussion with you when you've defined the teams with such a lack of clarity.

Once you can agree with people on the language or terms, then you'd probably be able to make more sense as to what they want, the world around.

I think we should hear the first results in about 1/2 hour at 2pm ET

Turnout has been lower than normal which was expected, but it doesn't appear to be as low as was needed to give Le Pen a real chance.

I guess we'll know soon enough. The Macron supporters are already in celebration mode it seems.

quote:

Originally posted by MTJbyrd:
...and by helping elect Trump he has removed American leadership from the picture.

Without a doubt the most ignorant line I have heard yet.

So tell me genius, how exactly did he "help elect Trump"? I, and millions of other Americans, voted for Trump because he was the better choice. Did Putin somehow trick me? And I a Russian mole? Did Putin trick millions of Americans who want a better economy, a good job? Stow your ignorant trash. Loss of leadership? Really? If you define the last 8 years as "leadership" you need a better definition.

You and your lefty friends may not like Trump, but get real. Trump has more leaderahip ability in his pinky than your girl Hillary. Who, by the way, should be in prison for mishandling classifed info. But then maybe that is how you define "leadership".

It was a blowout. Macron wins with about 65% of the vote.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
It was a blowout. Macron wins with about 65% of the vote.

Well that sucks. It's not a huge surprise but it still blows for France.

Eh, if you think Le Pen is the way forward for France, then it isn't over yet. Her party's been building up victories in local races and there'll be national elections in the future.