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Anonymous allegedly hacked Romney tax records

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31–40 of 116 posts

Re: Anonymous allegedly hacked Romney tax records

#32
post #18
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it is genuine, I don't know why they think they'll get away with it. Also $1M is way too low of an amount to blackmail Romney for. Talk about selling yourself short.

Eh, I'm not sure. It's pretty clear what's in Romney's returns at this point (a lower than average income tax rate, though it's hard to say whether it's closer to 5% or 15%), so I don't see a huge downside risk for him in them being released. If they upped their demands to, say $10 million, we're talking about real money, even for Mitt. Enough to get an extra percent of the vote or so in a moderate sized state. Unles…

He has recently insisted that he's never paid less than 13%, so if it comes out as less than that, he might have a huge political problem.

For the record, I don't think he's lying about that, he seems far too smart to set up a trap like that for himself.

Re: Anonymous allegedly hacked Romney tax records

#34

What I find interesting is the future(or current) possibility of political opponents hacking each other and then blaming it on "Anonymous" or entrepreneurial hackers. Or heck, infiltrate companies that do business with the political opponent and then blame "hackers" who don't exist.

I really hope you didn't just give them the idea.

Re: Anonymous allegedly hacked Romney tax records

#36
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to dilute what the words means to the point it can mean just about any crime, sure. But if you're referring to the strict term, then no.

>the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion Which word am I diluting exactly? If Romney is as afraid of releasing his taxes as many imply, would he not be fearful of their release? edit2: thanks for the replies, I think I understand why y'all disagree and I think that I agree with you. It's not systematic and it's not being used to intimidate others, it's too focused, basically.

Part of the idea of terrorism (and hate crimes, for that matter) is that the victims aren't just the ones immediately impacted, but other people as well. The aim of terrorism is to create a climate of fear in those who live. I will always remember the first time I flew on an airplane after September 11, 2001.

I strongly doubt that this act was designed to strike fear into the hearts of all of the other fabulously wealthy presidential candidates who refuse to disclose their tax returns.

Re: Anonymous allegedly hacked Romney tax records

#37
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to dilute what the words means to the point it can mean just about any crime, sure. But if you're referring to the strict term, then no.

>the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion Which word am I diluting exactly? If Romney is as afraid of releasing his taxes as many imply, would he not be fearful of their release? edit2: thanks for the replies, I think I understand why y'all disagree and I think that I agree with you. It's not systematic and it's not being used to intimidate others, it's too focused, basically.

In my opinion, the reason this does not classify as terrorism is that 99.999999% of the world is not afraid of being blackmailed for the release of their tax returns.

Re: Anonymous allegedly hacked Romney tax records

#38
This kind of stuff has the potential to be so much fun, but always ends up being so boring.

Remember when a 4chan user hacked into Sarah Palin's not-public-record Yahoo! Mail account and managed to post screenshots to /b/? But then the user totally failed to publicly archive the mail? And somehow got caught? Total disappointment.

Re: Anonymous allegedly hacked Romney tax records

#39
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the low amount is what makes me suspect that it's fake. If this were real, and the true aim was extortion, we would have never heard about it.

Perhaps the blackmailers assume they are more likely to get money from people who want the records revealed. 1 million people could pay $1 each, Kickstarter-style.

I would gladly pay a dollar (or donate to a charity of Mitt's choice) to have him release the records, just so we could move past them and try to talk about something of substance for a while.

Re: Anonymous allegedly hacked Romney tax records

#40
Damn. Who knows if this is legit, but assassination markets are coming, it's only a matter of time. Obviously it won't start with ACTUAL assassinations-- but hide your data, hide your mistresses.

If abused assistants and underpaid file clerks ever realize they can make 100x their salary by leaking data with a bounty there is going to be a culture changing shit-storm.

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