NEW YORK, NY Dec. 14 (DPI) – Comment boards on major news sites are fat with indignation over apparent Russian hacks and their alleged influence over last month’s election. More than 4,000 comments hit NYTimes.com after it posted  a report that Russian hackers influenced the election with “devastating effectiveness,” under the rather breathless headline “How Russian Cyberpower Invaded the US.”

Thus many NYT readers are now expressing their conviction that Donald Trump has won an illegitimate election, and that Trump-designated delegates of the Electoral College, when they formally cast their votes on Monday, should defy their mandate and vote for Hillary Clinton. That scenario, while unlikely, would trigger a constitutional crisis unprecedented in American election history.

The second most popular comment: “If there ever were a reason for the Electoral College to take the election results into its own hands and deliver the country from an illegitimate result with devastating consequences to our national security and esteem among the world’s nations, this is it.”  Fourth most popular: “The next President of the United States is going to be a puppet for the Kremlin.”

Of course, even The Times itself acknowledges that whatever happened – it’s confirmed only that hacking into and theft of documents from The Democratic National Committee took place  — there is no evidence that Russians or anyone else de-legitimized the election through vote-rigging or outright fraud.

Moreover, a minority of readers – as many as 25% – see the claims of election-rigging by Russian meddlers as post-election hysteria from angry Clinton supporters. Among the most-popular comments:

The release of e-mails was embarrassing for Secretary Clinton and the Democratic Party, but I don’t think it tipped the election.

She lost, get over it. Yes the Electoral College is obsolete. Yes some voting machines can be hacked, but no-one is claiming that in states with tight results. Let’s see what the official investigation says, and who says it.
For better or worse Mr. Trump will be our next President because he won the election. Personally I’m delighted that he may damp down the over-the-top Russophobia that is swirling around DC, “defense” contractor Congressional shills, & the offices of the NYT but nowhere else in the country.  It’s time for progressives to emerge from Obama-daze and convince the rest of the country that they have a better vision for this country’s future than that offered by conservatives/reactionaries. One that doesn’t involve bombing hapless foreigners. Articulate your policies as best you can, learn from your defeats and from your victories. Onward!

I suppose we finally got a taste of our own medicine — countless governments overthrown and elections influenced at the hand of the United States. Not fun is it? Perhaps we can learn a lesson from this.

And others:

“Perfect Weapons”? You mean a phishing email that prompted a member of the Podesta staff to deliberately type in their password on a forged webpage? In 2016? The kind of hilarious trick that has become so outdated one would think nobody falls for it anymore. Please tell me this was meant to be a joke.