Democratic Underground Take-Down, 11/8/2016

[MacCruiskeen]

Still down. Still no updates to their Twitter or Facespook accounts.

The two most recent comments at their FB site both complain of DU censoring, hiding and deleting posts:

Debbie Dee
IDK... DU had become pretty censory with juries regulating speech and hiding posts and such. Maybe we all should just move along!

Amy Larimer
I'm sorry this website was hacked. I stopped going there much after the primaries when we were no longer allowed to discuss issues with the Democratic Party (kowtowing to Wall Street and Silicon Valley at the expense of ordinary people.) I had posts hidden because I wanted to discuss Thomas Franks's "Listen Liberal" which is highly critical of both the party and the Clinton machine. Make no mistake, this election was Hillary's to lose and she shouldn't have. We need to move the party back to the ideas that made it strong and away from the corporate world. Which is what cost us this election. I made no bones about my dislike of Hillary but I got past it because Trump is a disaster of epic proportions. Still, I think we have to do better next time and focus on true progressive ideas.

...and no one appears to be disagreeing with any of that. On the contrary.

Where can Skinner be hiding?

[PufPuf93]

Okay folks. You have your reasons, and maybe I have it wrong. We'll know in a few days in any event.
But I was looking around over there when all of a sudden that video the PufPuf posted in the Election thread began taking up the browser window.

I don't know if it was Trumpets, vandals, or Russian trolls.
The video did have lots of Putin in it. Best I could tell, it was making some sort of connection to UKIP and other nationalists in Europe, and Putin..
There was also that Trump photoshop "Get In Faggot, We're Making America Great Again" w/trump holding a gun from a limo.

Oh, and some sort of 'glorious' music playing too.

Very weird.

Here is that video. Where I got it was after the initial hack at DU, DU came back online and Skinner posted a message about the hack and stated that said video was being launched when users attempted to access DU.

I think it rather cheesy and also question any explanation offered by Skinner. DU is partially financed by and essentially integrated with the Hillary Clinton campaign. The morning of the general election, Skinner had posted a message to all users stating that after the election the DU general election rules would remain in force, specifically that there would be no criticism of Hillary Clinton allowed once she was elected.

Oops.

My comment above about "Russians" reflects my thoughts regards the manufactured paranoia that "Putin" and the "Russians" are blamed for interfering with USA elections. One thing we do know is that the DNC and Hillary Clinton campaign conspired to tilt the Democratic primary process in favor of Hillary Clinton when Clinton probably did not need the advantage to prevail. That very set of actions plus poor and dismissive treatment of many long term Democrats and others to the left of the now establishment neoliberal Democratic party center is what cost the Democratic party the election and led to the election of Trump as POTUS.

Whoever did make the rude video intended to inflame. I find it curious that of all the various political sites on the internet that only Democratic Underground apparently was so damaged / hacked almost simultaneous with the revelation that the POTUS election was going to be unfavorable regards Hillary Clinton. Personally I do not like the fact that my own information is in the DU membership database.

Here is the video I just copied from the Election thread.

[stickdog99]

LOL at their first, tentative "testing the waters" question of the day!

[MacCruiskeen]

LOL at their first, tentative "testing the waters" question of the day!

Oh ffs, these guys have got to be taking the piss. Are they already posting from GWB's Paraguayan ranch or Jeffrey Epstein's island, or are they still in Langley?


Skinner enjoys "testing the waters" (by secure smartphone)

[MacCruiskeen]

Skinner doesn't exactly sound heartbroken by Hillary's shock defeat, does he? I mean, considering all the years of dedicated work he's put in for the Party, day in, day out, he doesn't seem to mind losing. It's as if he'd lost a sock. ON EDIT: No, it's as if he'd found a 100$ bill.

[MacCruiskeen]

The US corporate media are having a collective nervous breakdown. Canada's server crashes under the pressure of enquiries from Americans thinking of emigrating. Students are weeping in the streets. Hijabs are torn off. Flags are torched. A German paper's front page carries only the words: "The End of the West - ten-page special inside". Foreign ambassadors struggle to find adequate words. For the unthinkable has happened: Trump has won and HILLARY HAS LOST.

How must poor Skinner be feeling? Distraught, surely. Or too angry for words. Can he still send messages to DU, despite that fiendishly-effective hack? Yes, he can. What a relief!

Here's his response, in full (emphases in the original):

UPDATE 11/10/2016 12:00PM ET

Democratic Underground is still down, but we're not out! While Elad works on the site's back-end, we've decided to go old-school.

When DU first launched 16 years ago, the Web was a much plainer, simpler experience. Way back in the day we used to accept article submissions from DU members via email, which we would then publish manually on our HTML homepage over our 56K modem connection (yes, we're old).

So given that our super-duper up-to-date modern technology is letting us down in this time of need, we're going to to things the old-fashioned way. We'll post a question of the day, and then you email us your answer. We'll publish the best ones right here on our 503 error page while we're working to get the rest of the site back up. You don't have to write a book, or even a long essay -- just give us your thoughts.

Here's Thursday's Question Of The Day:

How are you feeling now that the election is over?

Send your answer to mail@democraticunderground.com. Make the subject of your email "Question of the Day". Please make sure to include your DU username in the email so that we can publish it when we publish your response.

When we publish new answers, we'll post an update on our Facebook and Twitter pages. We look forward to hearing from you, and thanks again for your patience while we work to restore normal service!


-----------------------

UPDATE 11/9/2016 1:00PM ET

We have now come to believe it is possible that the hacker may have been able to gain access to certain member information on our server, including: Usernames, email addresses, and IP addresses. Passwords were not as easily accessible, and at this point we do not know if it was possible for the hacker to access them. (Further note that passwords on DU are "hashed" and saved in a cryptographically scrambled format rather than as plain text, so if the hacker could access a member's password information they would not have direct access to the password itself -- only to the hash.)

We can say for certain that donor data, such as credit card numbers or addresses, were not compromised because that information is handled by PayPal and never passes through to our servers.

We are not going to bring our website back online until we believe that we are no longer vulnerable to attack and our members' user information is secure. Unfortunately we do not know how long this process will take, and it could possibly take days.

We will be posting updates on Facebook and Twitter.

Thank you again for your patience and understanding.

11/8/2016 (EDITED)

Around 4:30pm on Tuesday November 8, Democratic Underground was hacked, apparently by a supporter of Donald Trump. This person clearly knew what they were doing, and despite our best efforts we have not yet been able to resolve the issues caused by the hack.

We are confident that donor data has not been compromised because that information is handled by PayPal and never passes through to our servers. But at this time we are unable to bring our discussion forum online.

The hack was clearly aimed to cause maximum disruption on our busiest night of the year, and we deeply regret that we won't be able to spend election night with our great community of members. We ask for your patience while we continue to work to fix this problem, and while we do not have a time frame we will do our best to get DU back online as soon as possible.

If anyone has any information about the hack, or has knowledge that might help us to fix it, please feel free to contact us: admin@democraticunderground.com

We will be posting updates on Facebook and Twitter.

We are deeply disappointed that this has happened. But we'll be back.

Skinner, EarlG, and Elad
DU Administrators

http://www.democraticunderground.com/503.php

^^That just had to be preserved for posterity.

Not. one. word. of. regret. No expression of solidarity. No fighting words. Not one mention of the names "Hillary" or "Clinton". In three days: nothing. Not even one word about the election result.

Democratic Underground: Spooking The Nation Since 2001.

DU was established on January 20, 2001, the day Republican George W. Bush was inaugurated president.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Underground

Well, it would be, wouldn't it.

edit: typos, formatting

[stillrobertpaulsen]

There was also that Trump photoshop "Get In Faggot, We're Making America Great Again" w/trump holding a gun from a limo.

Well, there's no "maybe" anymore. I'm definitely the "faggot America."


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1BS7XnEZqc

[2012 Countdown]

SRP- Man...I played that song 1000's of times to help me through the Bush years. Just had to listen to it again just now.


Stick/Mac-

One other bit that should be factored in. Timing. It did happen just when they said it did. About 3-4 pm EST. I remember checking in there that afternoon about that time (it was BEFORE the election went south).
Returns were not even coming in then (I know, they potentially have advanced knowledge of what was to come). I am just saying everything was going great and spirits were very hopeful/confident over there when it happened.
It could be that yes it was a legit outside attack, but they are now just simply chicken shit about coming back and want to wait a few days...could be.
Skinner showed me his true self when he banned someone who voted 'wrong' on a poll. I mean, thats some nasty shit right there. A member sets up a poll on a contentious issue, but don't vote 'wrong' or Skinner will ban you.
Low down bullshit right there.

Yes, thank you PufPuf, thats the one! So I got that crap and it wouldn't go away, so I just moved on to look at other sites, not thinking much about it. It was only till Puf posted that later that night that I fully realized what happened.

[2012 Countdown]

They are posting pre- screened submissions now...


How are you feeling now that the election is over?
Added 11/10/2016 4:30PM ET (first batch; more on the way)

Response by Mainer

How'm I feeling? Scared. Alone. Plus DU's still down and its Facebook page is now filled with posts by rightwing trolls "celebrating liberal tears" and stirring up paranoia that Skinner is a scam artist, etc. So I'm glad you're at least giving us updates. It feels like we're being attacked from all sides -- by the alt-right, Russia, wikileaks, everyone who's ever hated liberals. Attacks are also coming at me personally (and at my rather well-known entertainment acquaintances) on Twitter.

I don't get the rage from my pro-Bernie compatriots. I was gung-ho for Bernie too, but there came a time to unite against the bigger enemy, and it seems they couldn't see the bigger picture. Which just makes me depressed.

Response by live love laugh

I remain calm after I talked a few people off the ledge yesterday. My reasoning is: it was stolen--again. I’ve been with DU since Bush stole office. I shared with my sister that it’s impossible for people like the POTUS and Hillary not to know about election theft not have done more to fix this problem which I see as the most pressing problem in our country. I have very little sympathy and I blame Hillary and our president for not doing more about this treasonous crime. My 80 year old mother woke up vowing to never vote again after seeing the results. The protest marches, the volatile markets—all conform to the reality and logic that Hillary was the winning candidate--there was nothing that put Trump ahead of Hillary to “win” the election. Furthermore, academically, it’s just not probable that repeated elections end with razor-thin margins—that every other person is a Trump supporter. It’s simply not true. I will vote and let my vote be stolen but I will not be sucked in by the manufactured drama that is America’s election process.

Response by anonymous

I always turn to this quote in times of distress:

TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.

-- Howard Zinn

[MacCruiskeen]

Stick/Mac-

[...]

Skinner showed me his true self when he banned someone who voted 'wrong' on a poll. I mean, thats some nasty shit right there. A member sets up a poll on a contentious issue, but don't vote 'wrong' or Skinner will ban you.
Low down bullshit right there.

...

... and absolutely typical. He is a shitehawk of the first order. It's shabby, arrogant, dishonest authoritarians like him who have killed the Democratic Party stone-dead and made a Trumpocalypse inevitable.

edit: formatting

[seemslikeadream]

poor bolo and Sid have been out of work for so long now ...I wonder if they have signed up for unemployment yet?

[stillrobertpaulsen]

poor bolo and Sid have been out of work for so long now ...I wonder if they have signed up for unemployment yet?

Thank you, thank you, thank you for my first genuine in 48 hours.

[MacCruiskeen]

They are posting pre- screened submissions now...


How are you feeling now that the election is over?
Added 11/10/2016 4:30PM ET (first batch; more on the way)

Response by Mainer

How'm I feeling? Scared. Alone. Plus DU's still down and its Facebook page is now filled with posts by rightwing trolls "celebrating liberal tears" and stirring up paranoia that Skinner is a scam artist, etc.

"paranoia" Now do we finally see the damage the weaponised CIA term "conspiracy theory" has done? Any questioning of Authority, however justified, is paranoia.

So I'm glad you're at least giving us updates. (translation: "Thank you, Daddy."] It feels like we're being attacked from all sides -- by the alt-right, Russia , wikileaks , everyone who's ever hated liberals. [the word "socialist" simply does not cross his mind, any more than the words "poor people" or "foreigners" do] Attacks are also coming at me personally (and at my rather well-known entertainment acquaintances) on Twitter.

Comment would be superfluous, I hope. Because I'm biting my tongue here.

I don't get the rage from my pro-Bernie compatriots. I was gung-ho for Bernie too, but there came a time to unite against the bigger enemy, and it seems they couldn't see the bigger picture. Which just makes me depressed.

Mainer doesn't get the rage from his pro-Bernie compatriots. He just doesn't get it. Is Mainer not a Good Guy? Well, then, why is everyone being being so mean to him? It's a profound mystery, the existence of angry people and bad feelings. He wants Dr Skinner to explain it to him and make him feel better.

What age is Mainer?

That poor guy is gonna have to grow up and spread his wings and leave the Skinner Box eventually. He might actually find a world out there, a very messy place, but real. Toddlers have to learn to walk.

[JackRiddler]

It's taking on comedic aspects and also getting more suspicious by the day.

[MacCruiskeen]

It's taking on comedic aspects and also getting more suspicious by the day.

It's the blackest of black comedy, Jack. Skinner and those other spook sadists are reading every word of this stuff - "vetting" it* - before they release carefully-selected bits of it to a waiting world. They can only be laughing like hyenas. I wouldn't be surprised if they're writing it themselves, except that that would be too much like work.

Months if not years ago I said, "The USA is not just post-democratic; it's post-real." That couldn't last forever, though.

Reality is coming back now, and people literally cannot believe it.

*Look how bland and weak and helpless those posts are. And notice how little heat Skinner&Co themselves are taking. It was ever thus.