"Jack does believe ..."

It is an unfortunate reality that we must use belief at times, when knowledge is better (The Pillars of Knowledge: Faith and Trust?).

In such cases "Epistemic Dependence" is what we must rely on.

Perhaps my weak mind has just been twisted and distorted by serving on several juries in my life.

You know the principle----Evidence is supposed to be convincing beyond a reasonable doubt, in order to vote to vote "Guilty" and convict.

Call me brainwashed by an institution of Democracy, but NO, I am not ready to assume the Russians are guilty of hacking the DNC emails,
UNTIL I HAVE SEEN CONVINCING EVIDENCE.

Just like that dumb juror #8 in "12 Angry Men", who just couldn't vote guilty without checking through all the evidence. Then once they did, they found the evidence faulty and voted to acquit. Pretty dumb, huh?

Except in this case, WHERE'S THE DARN EVIDENCE?

No one can check the evidence, if it is not presented. Then how can an honest "verdict" be reached?

So at this moment, I am stuck at "No Decision".
The trial hasn't started yet, IMO.

In effect,
No Evidence=No Trial.

Anyone who has already "decided" on Russian culpability without evidence, I sure wouldn't want to serve on a jury deciding on another human being's guilt or innocence.

JMO.

Help, aaafter all my work at the CIA and EPA I just got fucjing a burn notice, and found myself with 3 years for sticking up for your green news rights, could use some money on my books for the next 36 months.

Go Team Green

DonL @ #2,

Well said.

One has to wonder if some folks never figured out why the government, and only the government, must prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

I am sure it has something to do with past behaviors of those with government power (Why Trial By Jury?).

We were forewarned:

“Experience has shown that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” – Thomas Jefferson

According to a former US Ambassador to Russia convincing evidence is in the Crowd Strike report --- someone pls. refute this if you can, but dont ignore it:
https://www.crowdstrike....atic-national-committee/

Patrick Rodgers @ #5,

Your link has this "are believed to be closely linked to the Russian ..."

Sorry, that would be grounds for dismissal in a court of law where proof beyond a reasonable doubt is required.

In your link, this is offered as proof of competence:

"COZY BEAR (also referred to in some industry reports as CozyDuke or APT 29) is the adversary group that last year successfully infiltrated the unclassified networks of the White House, State Department, and US Joint Chiefs of Staff."

This has been going on since governments first got computers:

For forty years the military has been hackable. If you want a book that documented the current reality 40 years ago, read The Cuckoo's Egg, by Cliff Stoll. He had a difficult time convincing the military that it was being hacked as if it was an open book:

The meeting was top secret, so I couldn't listen—someone fetched me when my turn came. In a small room, lit only by the viewgraph machine, there were around thirty people, most of them in uniforms. Generals and admirals, like you see in the movies.

Well, I talked for half an hour, describing how the hacker was breaking into military computers and skipping through our networks.
...
I know as little about the military world as the next person. "I guess I'm impressed, though I'm not sure why," I said. "You ought to be," Bob said. "These are all flag officers. General John Paul Hyde works at the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And that guy in the front row --- he's a big shot from the FBI. It's a good thing he heard you."

(ibid, The Cuckoo's Egg, p. 200). This took place 40 years [as of 2009] ago when a long hair from Berkeley informed the military they were being had, so they gave the long haired hippy astronomer the National Medal of Honor.

(Ye Olde Drone Hackers Ride Again). There is a free book in PDF format (The Cuckoo's Egg) which documents government cluelessness.

If they are good enough they could make systems secure.

Sixty years into this and they haven't found the secure spot yet?

How beyond a reasonable doubt are they then?

The book I mentioned above has a very revealing detail in it.

Cliff could not get anyone to take seriously what he was telling them.

Desperate for help, he called The National Security Agency (NSA) where he was told:

"Cliff, I'd like to take over, but our charter prevents it. NSA can't engage in domestic monitoring, even if we're asked. That's prison term stuff."

(p. 87, The Cuckoo's Egg).

Now they listen to everything anyone says or writes on their cell phones or on the internet.

Yep, evolution from left to right (Evolution From Left to Right).

If you don't want to go to the library to get a copy of the book I mentioned, here is a link to a PDF copy (The Cuckoo's Egg).

A eye opener for sure.

As a long-time Progressive and FDR/New Deal Democrat, it is difficult and downright unpleasant
to watch the "Liberal"/Democratic Party side succumb to the very same emotional vulnerability as the early 2000s Bush-supporters who desperately NEEDED to support and believe Bush, Condie Rice and the Neocon's BS about WMDs/aluminum tubes & yellowcake U from Niger, so any invasion of Iraq was JUSTIFIED in their minds.

No logic. Just pure emotion.

Now, it is the folks terrified of Trump who NEED to believe Trump is a "traitor", so they follow their desperate feelings and succumb to the mere suggestion of Russian hacking, as if it were hard fact, which it is not.

And when you try to explain to them that, without any real evidence, they are just convincing themselves that something is true which hasn't been proven yet, they don't get it.

Denial. Obstinacy. Obtuseness.

Well sadly Jack isn't very bright is he?

Absolutely zero evidence that Russia had anything to do with it.
Mountains of evidence however that the DNC, Clinton, and the entire mainstream media committed blatant election fraud.