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Today is the 1 year anniversary of one of the most insane days in American news

B

BlastProcessing

Member
And we should probably talk about it. On October 7th 2016 a series of important stories broke, but one overshadowed the rest. Yahoo News has a really great piece on it: 64 hours in October: How one weekend blew up the rules of American politics

The day began with Hurricane Matthew battering Florida then:

At 3PM: The White House releases a joint statement from the Department of Homeland Security and Office of the Director of National Intelligence saying for the first time publicly that the Russian government was behind the election hacking — and that “only Russia’s senior-most officials” could have authorized the operation.​

This should have been on of the biggest stories in American history. It should have dominated political discourse for months.

But then...

At 4:05PM: The Trump Access Hollywood tape is published by the Washington Post.
​

And everyone loses their minds. At this point it seems impossible for Trump to win the election

But one more thing happened that day, something that goes unnoticed, something that changed everything:

4:32 p.m. ET: WikiLeaks begins publishing thousands of emails obtained in a hack of John Podesta’s personal account, including some that reveal the inner workings of the Clinton campaign. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is living in exile in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, refuses to reveal the source of the emails.​

It's unclear whether the Russians timed this release to counter the United State's accusation of Russian meddling, or the Pussy Tape, or both but in the long run, it's an incredibly successful move that negates the wounds Trump suffered and allows him to win.

It was really a perfect storm, the tape ate up all of the oxygen, completely obscuring the Russian actions, which allowed the Russian actions to better serve Trump.

So yeah, this thread is mainly about sharing memories of that day and trying to use the distance of time to figure out just what the fuck happened. Either way I highly recommend the Yahoo piece. It is extremely well done and talks to many of the players.
 
M

Master Yoshi

Member
My thoughts:

Surely Christian America won't stand for a man who is such a poor example for their children.


I was so fucking wrong.
 
B

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
The Access Hollywood tape came out, and I was like "God is Real"... the universe simply wouldn't allow this orange buffoon to take over the free world.

But now in retrospect it was just leaked oppo from a democratic bubble who didn't yet realize that Trump's politically incorrect "bug" was actually a "feature". The people who were likely to vote for Trump didn't care about it at all.... it almost enhanced the whole "thumbing his nose at nannying elites" appeal he was going for.
 
D

DrKelpo

Banned
Master Yoshi said:
Surely Christian America won't stand for a man who is such a poor example for their children.
Click to expand...

0.jpg
 
D

Deleted member 1159

Unconfirmed Member
It simultaneously feels like yesterday and an eternity ago
 
T

tbm24

Member
That day and what followed hurt so much. Fucker is on tape saying everything people were accusing him of for years. And nothing, it’s all fake bullshit. Then he’s rewarded for it on election night.
 
B

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Remember there was like five minutes after this where Pence refused to be seen with Trump? Oh how morality goes out the window when you win.

We must be about a year from the second presidential debate, too... and that event still shocked me with how much of a bullying brute Trump was.

You can tell Trump felt up against the wall after the release of the tape, so he brings Bill Clinton's rape accusers to the debate. "Classy" doesn't even begin to describe this. It was one of the ugliest tactics I've ever seen. And then he domineers over Hilary physically. Threatens to lock her in jail, etc.

I'd like to think it's more that presidential debates "don't matter", rather than his base actually liked Trump's performance..... because what was on display was a petty, vindictive pig. Could it be that people actually... liked that? I'd hope not. I mean I don't even care what you politics are or if you hate Hilary (I get it)... but to applaud the performance of this school yard bully? *shudder*

Sometimes I will describe how much I hate Trump, and the person I am talking to will think I'm arguing for left-wing politics. Not even. He's just so clearly a caveman and a brute... the kind of person I wouldn't want in my household around my family.
 
B

BlastProcessing

Member
DogDude said:
Why shoot the messenger with wikileaks? I never understood that unless you believe the documents are fake.
Click to expand...

Wikileaks isn't a neutral messenger. They are an organization build around a series of political goals that aligned itself with the Russian government to further them. The Podesta emails were emails by a private citizen that were obviously stolen. Wikileaks then released excerpts that removed context for maximum weaponization. Those releases were then used by Russian troll farms in a targeted fashion.
 
R

RoKKeR

Member
I was interviewing for a job that entire day. I remember pulling my phone out afterwards and saying out loud "it's over."

I still can't fucking believe how wrong I was.
 
Joel Was Right

Joel Was Right

Member
WillyFive said:
The Hollywood Access tape should have been released the week before the election.
Click to expand...

Why?

Trump had by that point amassed an impressive list of derogative, frightening and dangerously ignorant statements. The "pussy" remark wasn't anymore damaging than, say, his attack on the Gold Star Khan family.
 
B

BlastProcessing

Member
RoKKeR said:
I was interviewing for a job that entire day. I remember pulling my phone out afterwards and saying out loud "it's over."

I still can't fucking believe how wrong I was.
Click to expand...

In a year where Russia wasn't manipulating our election at multiple levels, it would have been over.
 
B

Bruce Springsteen

Member
It’s still hard to wrap my head around the fact that he still won the election after that tape leak, I thought he was going to lose by the largest landslide in history. Says a lot about the electorate of this country
 
X

xxracerxx

Don't worry, I'll vouch for them.
Basically 3/4 of Americans are fucking morons. 1/4 of them actually voted for the sleezebag and 1/2 didn't even vote.
 
B

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
BlastProcessing said:
In a year where Russia wasn't manipulating our election at multiple levels, it would have been over.
Click to expand...

Hmmm. I don't really buy into the narrative that Russian meddling = Trump president. I mean, it could have been the deciding factor, but let's not act like it is for sure. The election was close and any number of "what ifs" could have flipped the coin toward either side.
 
B

BlastProcessing

Member
xxracerxx said:
Basically 3/4 of Americans are fucking morons. 1/4 of them actually voted for the sleezebag and 1/2 didn't even vote.
Click to expand...

Turnout was embarrassingly low, but it's hard to say just how many of that 1/2 were held back by the massive voter suppression campaign.

BocoDragon said:
Hmmm. I don't really buy into the narrative that Russian meddling = Trump president. I mean, it could have been the deciding factor, but let's not act like it is for sure. The election was close and any number of "what ifs" could have flipped the coin toward either side.
Click to expand...

A year ago we got a direct warning from Homeland Security that Russia was meddling in the election and then a massive example of that meddling. I feel pretty confident about it.

We already know that Russia created Facebook ads seen by millions (at the minimum) and that the used Facebook to organize actual protests on American soil. We know that they operated massive Troll farms and botnets. We know that the hacked the DNC and Podesta's emails and gave those materials to Wikileaks. We know that they sent an envoy to Trump tower to discuss Russia's campaign to help Trump.
 
B

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
BlastProcessing said:
A year ago we got a direct warning from Homeland Security that Russia was meddling in the election and then a massive example of that meddling. I feel pretty confident about it.

We already know that Russia created Facebook ads seen by millions (at the minimum) and that the used Facebook to organize actual protests on American soil. We know that they operated massive Troll farms and botnets. We know that the hacked the DNC and Podesta's emails and gave those materials to Wikileaks. We know that they sent an envoy to Trump tower to discuss Russia's campaign to help Trump.
Click to expand...

I can entertain it. I do think the whole discussion around Hillary and Trump was completely warped by social media, and Russia had a hand in it... so it could have been a major factor.
 
B

BlastProcessing

Member
devilhawk said:
Millions and millions and millions of registered voters didn't vote. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/registered-voters-who-stayed-home-probably-cost-clinton-the-election/
Click to expand...

I know, and I know that most of those people weren't directly affected by voter suppression. Only saying that some of them were and that we should keep that in mind. It would suck to have your vote taken away from you and then be lumped in with the apathetic.

BocoDragon said:
I can entertain it. I do think the whole discussion around Hillary and Trump was completely warped by social media, and Russia had a hand in it... so it could have been a major factor.
Click to expand...

I get that stance. I won't fault someone for wanting hard evidence about something so important in this world of social media smoke and mirrors.
 
X

xxracerxx

Don't worry, I'll vouch for them.
Snaku said:
Yup. I cannot fucking believe that locker room talk spin fucking worked. Fuck all of you idiots that bought that shit.
Click to expand...

God, there were people on GAF saying that everyone says that sort of shit with their bros. Disgusting.
 
B

BlastProcessing

Member
Snaku said:
Yup. I cannot fucking believe that locker room talk spin fucking worked. Fuck all of you idiots that bought that shit.
Click to expand...

Turns out, the locker room talk line didn't have to change minds. It just needed to give the faithful a new incantation to chant. It provided a permission structure for a decision that people already wanted to make.

People didn't need to believe it, they just needed to repeat it.
 
E

Electric Eye

Banned
Wow, remember "both the same", "my vote doesn't count anyway", "I'm voting third party" ? Fuck you if you held any of these ideas. Seriously. Fuck you.
 
T

Theslammer

Member
I read Shattered, and that was a big point in the book. To the Clinton campaign, they thought the Russia story was far more important than the Access Hollywood tape. In their minds, while the Access Hollywood tape was damning and embarrassing, it didn't change the narrative since, according to one Clinton campaign aide, "Everyone already knows Trump is a womanizing piece of shit."

Any other day, the Russia story would have been the biggest story, but instead, the Access Hollywood tape and even Wikileaks took over since Wikileaks was a drip drip drip kind of story, while the tape didn't have legs.

In the third debate, you could see how Hillary tried to frame the narrative surrounding it. I can certainly see how many people, even if they thought the Russia story was a bigger deal (and it was), would have thought the Access Hollywood tape was more damning since it was Trump on audio.

By all accounts, the tape did hurt Trump quite a bit. But a week is an eternity in politics, and we still had over a month to go.
 
K

Kiever Sher

Member
I know it probably wouldn't have made a difference but I like to imagine JEB! and W just pondering Trump's momentum during the primaries and being around Billy like ''If only we had something that could really damage Trump. All us GOP bros could team up on him in the debates. Like, a tape or something'' And Billy just nodding like ''if only!''
 
T

Theslammer

Member
Kiever Sher said:
I know it probably wouldn't have made a difference but I like to imagine JEB! and W just pondering Trump's momentum during the primaries and being around Billy like ''If only we had something that could really damage Trump. All us GOP bros could team up on him in the debates. Like, a tape or something'' And Billy just nodding like ''if only!''
Click to expand...

When the tape leaked, I wondered what the opposition research teams during the GOP primaries were doing all that time.
 
Ploid 3.0

Ploid 3.0

Member
Master Yoshi said:
My thoughts:

Surely Christian America won't stand for a man who is such a poor example for their children.


I was so fucking wrong.
Click to expand...

Because a lot of Christian people are just as bad, or wish they could be. Even then, a lot would vote anything but a woman to lead.
 
C

CreepingFear

Member
I remember where I was. I was at work at my desk. I overheard the CO of the company walk in to the office of our head of IT. He said that Trump was "finished". "It's over." I take no pleasure in saying how wrong he was.
 
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