Daily Times

WASHINGTON: Both Republican and Democratic candidates are frantically visiting one state after another to woo maximum number of late deciders, as more than 30 million Americans have already cast their votes under early voting system.

After three days the world would know who rules the United States in next four years. So far Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton is enjoying a slight lead over her Republican rival Donald Trump. The Trump campaign managers already expressed apprehensions of foul play in the elections casting doubt on the legitimacy of the American electoral system. The hacking of Democratic National Committee (DNC) computers allegedly by the Russian hackers created more confusion.

Took place a couple of months ago, the hacking revealed internal politics and wrangling of the Democratic Party. The hackers allegedly leaked Democrats emails and other documents to the Russian media which widely covered the story as part of Russian propaganda campaign.

The US intelligence agencies have a consensus that Moscow was involved in the hacking. However, Trump refused to buy their findings saying the hacking could have been done by China or anyone else in the US. The US media continued to drumbeat the existing of secret connection between Trump and Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. It observed the Kremlin boss has already succeeded in undermining faith in the political system and further polarizing an angry electorate.

Author and senior intelligence and national security correspondent for The Daily Beast, Shane Harris, wrote: “On Tuesday, Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump will be elected president. But no matter who prevails, Russian President Vladimir Putin can declare a victory of his own in the 2016 presidential race.”

“I think he has certainly succeeded in introducing additional discord into our political system. And he’s endeavoured to weaken Secretary Clinton so if she is successful in the election she is a less formidable foe,” he quoted Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, as saying.

In September, Peter Clement, a deputy assistant director at the CIA and the agency’s most senior Russia analyst, briefed journalists about the Russian connect in a rate public appearance. “If you look at the leaks that came out most recently on the DNC, the Russian media were very, very quick to pick up the fact that, ‘See, the West is always lecturing us, and yet look at this primary system. Was it a truly level playing field?’ Which is something the Americans always criticize the Russians about,” he then stated.

Clement claimed the Russian press also seized on documents hacked from the World Anti-Doping Agency that showed American athletes taking banned substances after Russian athletes were thrown out of competition for their own drug use. The Central Intelligence Agency informed the American people that President Putin wanted the hacking and leaking to be just ambiguous enough to be deniable, but obvious enough to make a point.

“It’s classic Putin, jerk geopolitics, trying to win the initiative by some alpha-male stunt, the cyber equivalent of bringing his big dog into meetings with Angela Merkel, who is notoriously afraid of dogs.” The US intelligence agencies were deeply wary of Trump after he publically praised President Putin as a wise and strong leader, encouraged Russian hackers to expose more of Clinton’s emails, and consistently denied that Russia was responsible for the hacking campaign.

In an exclusive article for Washington Post, former CIA Director Michael Hayden said that Trump was playing the old Soviet role of the “useful fool, manipulated by Moscow, secretly held in contempt, but whose blind support is happily accepted and exploited.” Democratic campaign managers accused that Trump’s company had a secret line of communication to a Russian bank. Clinton called him a “puppet” of the Russian president in third presidential debate.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post published another critical piece claiming the Russian businessmen helped Trump expand his real estate business. It wrote that as many as 60 Russians or Russian-born Americans bought into the 630-unit Trump Ocean Club International Hotel and Tower in Panama. The complex, overlooking the Caribbean, is the tallest building in Central America.

“I was interested because of Trump’s name and because I thought it would be a secure investment,” the Post quoted Victor Masaltsev, an Internet entrepreneur in Moscow, as saying in a phone interview. It said Trump pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars by doing business with Russian businessmen. Trump Hollywood penthouses appear to have been purchased by Russians. Property records show that one unit was purchased for $6.75 million in 2010 by a company associated with Oleg Miserva, a Russian coal company president who met with Putin in 2010.

Monkey’s Prediction: While the ascendency of Trump left leading political pundits shaking their heads in disbelief, the Republican candidate still have a chance to become 45th president of the United States. Geda believes it and has predicted that already. Geda is not a Harvard graduate analyst, but a Chinese monkey who successfully predicted the winners of European soccer matches. Described locally as “the king of prophets,” Geda kissed the cardboard cut-out of Trump on Friday as a sign of its prediction in favour of the Republican candidate.

Geda, whose name means “goose bumps,” cast its vote by selecting bananas beside life-size cut-outs of Trump and Clinton. After deliberate thought the mystic monkey chose Trump. More recently, a group of orphaned dogs in Cleveland, were asked by Cleveland.com reporters to choose between Clinton and Trump by selecting presidential chew toys in a “highly unscientific poll” that still bears some resemblance to a real-life election cycles. The dogs chose Trump.