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Did the Russians really spend 'millions' trying to swing the election? (Where's the evidence?)
American Thinker ^ | 02/20/2018 | Thomas Lifson

Posted on 02/20/2018 9:16:27 AM PST by SeekAndFind

The effort to explain away Hillary Clinton's loss to Donald Trump began as a propaganda operation the morning after the election results came in.  Defense of the Russia collusion hoax requires a sinister foe that might have swung the election.  There is every incentive for the propaganda masters to present information in ways that lends itself to exaggeration.  So skepticism is warranted toward everything you hear from the media and even from the Mueller probe itself; it is, after all, the spawn of Hillary's campaign-sponsored Steele dossier and staffed by rabid partisans who donate only to Democrats.

Ever since the 13 indictments were announced last Friday, exactly in time to distract public attention from the FBI's bungling that cost 17 people their lives in Parkland, Florida, we have been hearing about "millions" of dollars spent by the Russians "per month."  It's become a major talking point.  For example, the staid magazine Foreign Policy [i]:

The endeavor, at one point, had a budget of $1.25 million a month, allowing it to pay hundreds of operatives to engage in a surreal campaign meant to interfere in American democracy that appears to have been financed in part through a catering company (one that reportedly treats workers poorly, at that).

But what is the source of this contention?  Even if you credit the figure with six zeroes, how many months does it apply to?  The Mueller indictment offers scant evidence.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; Russia
KEYWORDS: elections; mueller; russia; russianpropagandists; russianpuppets; russianstooges; russiasucks

1 posted on 02/20/2018 9:16:28 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

I was wondering about these millions spent when the advertising was apparently just a couple thousand a month. But then I thought that if the Russians had 80-90 people employed since about 2014, the payroll over that period could be a few millions. FWIW.


2 posted on 02/20/2018 9:20:18 AM PST by NutsOnYew (If the world was perfect, it wouldn't be.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I heard they spent about $3,000.


3 posted on 02/20/2018 9:22:03 AM PST by luvbach1 (I hope Trump runs roughshod over the inevitable obstuctionists, Dems, progs, libs, or RINOs!)
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To: luvbach1

$3,000 apart from payroll, if any.


4 posted on 02/20/2018 9:23:00 AM PST by luvbach1 (I hope Trump runs roughshod over the inevitable obstuctionists, Dems, progs, libs, or RINOs!)
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To: SeekAndFind; humblegunner

Did the Russians really spend ‘millions’ trying to swing the election? (Where’s the evidence?)

______________________________________________

If those 13 Russian bloggers had ‘millions’ to spend, then someone - please - show me how to become a Russian blogger.

We all know how humble feels about bloggers, but hey. If the pay is that good....


5 posted on 02/20/2018 9:26:29 AM PST by Responsibility2nd
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To: SeekAndFind

Russians were against Hillary when she was running against Sanders.

Russians were against Trump when he was running against Hillary.

Russians NEVER did ANYTHING against Sanders... remember when Sanders honeymooned in Moscow? Yep, his first choice.


6 posted on 02/20/2018 9:31:16 AM PST by GOPJ (The 'dead vote' is a byproduct of fraud that votes the people who don't show up.)
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To: NutsOnYew

There was a profit motive around the world in poor (but smart) countries to run positive stories on Trump generating facebook hits Here’s a link to one story - not the best one ... lost that link...

https://www.slavorum.org/how-macedonian-teen-helped-donald-trump-to-win-president-elections/


7 posted on 02/20/2018 9:39:07 AM PST by GOPJ (The 'dead vote' is a byproduct of fraud that votes the people who don't show up.)
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To: SeekAndFind

The problem is if the Russians were trying to spread confusion and to sow discord, they did a spectacularly half-assed job of it.

None of which approaches the meddling alarmism propagated by the fake news media and Democrats.

In the end, we’re left with more questions than answers and if anything seems clear, the Russian government isn’t that invested in subverting our political institutions.

The real irony is the people who refuse to accept the verdict of our democratic process are the fake news media and Democrats who slanderously assert that the Russians somehow helped to elect Trump.

For which no real proof whatsoever exists. And the people laughing at us are the Russians who are amused their puny efforts at sowing divisions among Americans have widened the partisan divide here beyond their wildest dreams.


8 posted on 02/20/2018 9:39:18 AM PST by goldstategop ((In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Forever))
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To: SeekAndFind

Placing ads is to interfere in American democracy.
Oh wait it’s democrat logic.


9 posted on 02/20/2018 9:50:57 AM PST by Vaduz (women and children to be impacIQ of chimpsted the most.)
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To: goldstategop

Anything they said or did had already been done by American Citizens. The crime is that they were not “American Citizens”.....or were they?


10 posted on 02/20/2018 10:00:50 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: SeekAndFind

Free Press in Americans is not for foreigners. Since when?


11 posted on 02/20/2018 10:01:48 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: Sacajaweau

They allegedly posed as American citizens.

If they were, Mueller’s indictment would be unconstitutional because the government in effect is punishing people for advocating politically incorrect thoughts.

Or the wrong candidate. This is the basis, seriously, of Mueller’s indictment.


12 posted on 02/20/2018 10:09:37 AM PST by goldstategop ((In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Forever))
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To: SeekAndFind

Maybe they should be asking if Soros attempted to sway the election and hire people to protest and create chaos.


13 posted on 02/20/2018 10:27:37 AM PST by hsmomx3
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To: goldstategop

Doesn’t make too much sense. All they had to do was join a twitter discussion that was anti-Hillary. Then it would be a Russian agreeing with an American. Where’s the crime??


14 posted on 02/20/2018 10:38:30 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: SeekAndFind

I am thinking that the Russians should call Mueller’s bluff.

If each of these Russians were to show up all on the same day, turn themselves in for arrest, insist on a jury trial and refuse to waive speedy trial, Mueller’s head would explode within 60 to 120 days.


15 posted on 02/20/2018 10:41:18 AM PST by Gator113 ( ~~Trump 2020~~)
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To: SeekAndFind

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l84dB0hiDp8&t=650s This is the spending


16 posted on 02/20/2018 10:43:42 AM PST by bmwcyle (People who do not study history are destine to believe really ignorant statements.)
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To: SeekAndFind

According to Facebook general counsel (testimony before congress) total spent was $46,000. Testimony before the senate item committee total was about $100,000.

This $1M per month is typical Dem talking point BS. Several Dem pundits have been corrected on panels but they continue repeating it.


17 posted on 02/20/2018 10:48:21 AM PST by moehoward
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To: moehoward

item=intel


18 posted on 02/20/2018 10:49:33 AM PST by moehoward
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To: SeekAndFind
I'm not sure the "revelations" in the indictments are having the desired effect. It is, however, revealing just how very little our ruling class knows about the Internet. These are 13 click-baiters, not evil-genius Svengalis spending millions to take over the world. And they left trails, such as they are, and those trails aren't very hard to follow. The Internet Is Forever, after all.

What we have when litany of evil is actually unwound is something a 12-year-old kid might tell his Dad to explain an embarrassing browser search history. The rallies that were attempted to be fomented were for both sides, and averaged an attendance that you could fit into a fair-sized Starbucks. The author has managed to come up with a picture of one of these featuring that noted Trump follower Michael Moore. This stuff isn't covert, it's available to anyone with an Internet connection, a search engine, and a little patience.

It will, of course, never reach a courtroom, which is precisely the point of the indictments. Along the way, though, we learn that people running the investigation are not only arrogant blowhards spending millions of the taxpayers' dollars in order to try to steer the government in a direction different from the one the voters have indicated is theirs, they're technical morons. These are apparatchiks who tremble at one 70-year-old guy typing with his thumbs on Twitter. The Man Behind The Curtain turns out to be more pathetic then we even thought, and deserves the howling derision he's getting on the Internet.

19 posted on 02/20/2018 10:52:24 AM PST by Billthedrill
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To: SeekAndFind
They just need to buy this book:


20 posted on 02/20/2018 1:00:59 PM PST by Boogieman
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