[CriticalSection]

The US government bankrolls the self-described "National Endowment for Democracy", which openly boasts ( http://www.ned.org/region/central-and-eastern-europe/ ) of meddling in Russian and other elections. Macron and his supporters talk the same way.

If the US and France are going to meddle in Russia's elections and affairs, what is the big surprise if Russia does the same?

Insofar as who benefits from "isolationism" and breaking up western [military] alliances, the answer is me, an American worker and taxpayer. I gain nothing with my tax money going to kill or rape some Vietnamese farmer, or overthrow an elected government in Ukraine.

Trump has a lot of negatives, but that does not apply to whatever notions he has of not getting the US involved overseas militarily more than he already as.

[Johnny_Brahms]

I wouldn't call hacking a political campaign to release (potentially incorrect?) documents and funding foreign organisations working within the limits of the law quite the same thing.

NED is maybe working in a gray zone, but using illegal means to influence an election is, if not an act of war pretty close to it.

[hackuser]

These aren't the same things at all. The U.S. / NED did not hack Russian politician's computers and spread disinformation about them. However, it is standard Russian propaganda to make wild allegations of equivalencies every time they do something wrong. 'We invaded Ukraine? What about Serbia? Texas?'

[CriticalSection]

> spread disinformation about them

Then why does Voice of America have a Russian language TV and radio broadcast? All it does is spread disinformation about Russia.

There's no proof Russia hacked into these computers. The US hacks into foreign computers all the time - the US created Stuxnet, perhaps with the Israelis. Thomas Reed from the NSC said the CIA got software into a Russian pipeline (in the 1980s!) that blew it up. Never mind spying, they bragged about explosions that disrupted oil pipelines in the 1980s and could have killed people.

I think most people on this board are under the age of 50, and an international audience, and the "wild allegations" are not what I said, but that this is all "standard Russian propaganda". The Democrats have more-or-less been saying that Trump and his cabinet are all Russian agents, and it's making the Democrats look a little loony. They'd be better off pointing out Trump's errors, which are often bad enough.

[hackuser]

The same pro-Russian propaganda uses the same talking points over and over, on every issue. 'There is no evidence!' (regardless of the evidence).