None of which has any bearing whatsoever on the simple factual matter of how the attacks happened, and what parties where responsible.

Which I didn't address and I don't care much about. However the attacks happened, and whoever parties were responsible, they were obviously inconsequential to the outcome of the elections.

But pointing out the hypocrisy is important, because it brings things to perspective and shows the absurdity of the complaints.

One is wrong: These attacks were not "obviously inconsequential", and the complaints of Russian hacking of the DNC are not "absurd".

Your second point ("the US does it too") is not wrong, but should not stop discussion of this particular attack. The U.S. has meddled in elections, but at the very least, the tactics here were new in their scale and effectiveness.

Compared e.g. to downright sponsoring and conspiring and successfully establishing a military dictatorship in my country (and tons of others)?

Or (for the "new" part) hacking and reading the mails of all world leaders, allies or not?

Hardly new and hardly major.

Not my way of looking at the world. But hey, whatever works for you, pal.

I didn't address the specific isolated facts, because in perspective they are insignificant.

If someone has e.g. punched 100 people, that someone doesn't get to look astonished and outraged when someone 1/10th their weight merely slaps them.

If your way to look at the world is to isolate every fact you see and look at it on its own, without reference frames, and even worse, not to even ask, "why are they showing me only this? Is there a bigger picture I should be aware of", then that's not MY way of looking at the world.

But it works for many, to jump from whatever they are shown to the next thing, and never question why and in what context. So, those people can knock themselves out with outrage over the "Russian influence" on the elections or Saddam's WMDs.

If someone has e.g. punched 100 people, that someone doesn't get to look astonished and outraged when someone 1/10th their weight merely slaps them.

In general, the whole "But Ma, he hit me worse!" line of thinking isn't very useful in understanding history and geopolitics. A better analogy to use would be perhaps the case of a hard-core alcoholic who feels livid and indignant when called on his drunken behavior by the local neighborhood crackhead. Which is of course, to some extent, hypocritical (even though the two drugs and their dependence syndromes are rather different) -- but also, in regard to the alcoholic's own situation, entirely irrelevant.

Getting back to the original article: at least there's clear evidence now that Podesta's account subjected to (and fell for) a phishing attack; which makes it more likely that the emails were in fact stolen (and not "leaked from the inside", as some have claimed).

What I find incredibly interesting is how Trumps inner circle is so well connected to Putin and his inner circle. Americans are either not interested or unfortunately not savvy enough to connect the dots. Even Donald himself has a long and warm relationship with many Russian Oligarchs. He has been facilitating real estate deals from Miami to NYC for a very long time. Hence all the friendliness with Putin. Although I don't really know if Americans care.

At the end of the day you need to figure out whether our government has been compromised by a foreign power. you got to wonder what has happened to the Republican Party and how many are warming up to Putin and Russia? Is it money? What is it?

I also would like to know why Wikileaks has gone quite. I have read that much of it's funding is now provided by the Kremlin.

Interesting times, you have to be careful when you pick a Prophet. You end up reaping the fruits of his labor......