CNN: No one cares about Russia

[A Theist]

What strikes me is that they didn't forcibly hack their way into the DNC and Clinton emails. They gained access through a simple phishing scheme. They were basically invited in.

If by "invited in" you mean some person within the DNC opened a viral attachment or inadvertently gave away their credentials, then sure. Phishing schemes aren't direct hacking attacks, but they are still pretty effective at gaining access. What the Russians did after they gained access is certainly forcible hacking. If the Russians had a person within the DNC, they wouldn't have needed the phishing scheme in the first place.

Even with that, there's no evidence that the Russians were able to change the outcome of the election.

No evidence yet, but the investigation is still underway. In the absence of actual vote tampering, the question of whether the outcome of the election was changed by Russian interference is difficult, if not impossible to answer. One could argue that the release of the DNC emails irreparably damaged Clinton, that the fake news posts on Facebook and other social media helped swing votes away from her too. Without that interference, would she have clung on in more swing states? Nobody knows.

But, from what I see, Russian interference in our elections isn't what the media is reporting. That's just a by story to their trying to indict Trump of colluding with Russia. They've messed up so many times that the more important story of Russian interference has stayed in the shadows.

I agree, but it isn't helped by the fact that a number of close associates with Trump are being linked to Russia, so I can't say I'm surprised by the stories. Let's put it this way: if Trump didn't collude with Russia, there sure were a lot of weird connections to Russia throughout his campaign. He did however make some statements on the campaign (and after) about having a better relationship with Russia, so that might explain why. I think that's pretty much all you can say regarding collusion at this point.

1. I don't think I'd go as far to agree that what the Russians did after they gained access amounted to forcible hacking. There's a difference between forcible entry and robbing something by force and using a con scheme to rob something by deceit. They masqueraded as something trusted and took what they wanted by deception. The DNC and Hillary didn't even know they were plundered until everything showed up on WikiLeaks. While the methods were different the end result was still the same, though. One by force. The other by deceit.

2. It could also be more accurately argued that Hillary lost the election because one of the dems'  largest and once loyal voting base broke for Trump, the white blue collar working class in the rust belt and coal states. Some of those states hadn't voted for a Republican president in 30+ years. During her whole campaign she didn't even step one foot in Wisconsin, and lost it. While she focused her message on identity politics, Trump went into those areas and campaigned that he was going to bring back coal and manufacturing jobs. They felt abandoned by the democrats, and these were the same areas that helped elect barack to two terms in the White House. Even now, what message do the democrats have besides resist Trump? Their party is too divided between the far left Bernie / Warren types, the moderate Manchin / [color=#000000]Heitkamp types, and the establishment Shcumer / Pelosi types. The only thing holding them together is, resist Trump. With the economy taking off the way it is now and no real message from the dems I doubt that they're going to do as well in the mid terms as they are hoping. I think that Hillary lost the election because of her poor campaigning.

3. Yeah but, still, what we may think are weird connections doesn't prove collusion. Look at all the hype surrounding the Nunes memo about FBI abuses and the obama administration using FISA warrants to spy on the Trump campaign. Weird coincidences, sure. Until something's actually proven it's just an interesting set of coincidences as far as I'm concerned.... Trump isn't the first candidate / politician to say that they want to improve relations with Russia. Remember Hillary's reset button that she gave to Lavrov? It was a symbolic gesture that the obama administration wanted to improve relations with Russia.