Former NSA staffer and now national security columnist John Schindler:
Old #NSA friend tells me that the term used by Kremlin higher-ups to describe Trump is severely unflattering, much worse than “our bitch”.
Tim Kaine:
“Why does President-elect Trump again and again and again take it upon himself to be Vladimir Putin’s defense lawyer rather than listening to and respecting the intelligence professionals of the United States,”.
“There is something very unusual – indeed, even sort of suspicious – about the degree to which he casually kicks aside the intelligence community when he won’t even go to the briefings again and again and takes the Assange/Vladimir Putin line on this important question” about whether Russian was behind the election-related hacks.
True, Communism doesn’t exist as the enemy anymore, but another one has taken its place. The enemy that *does *exist-- Islam (dressed up for the sound bites as “Radical Islamic Terrorism”)-- is an enemy common to both these men.
Exactly.
A few more major attacks by ISIS on major cities (or Russian diplomats or American locations), and you’re going to see these two tough guys shoulder to shoulder to take on the dirty barbarians. Think about what Trump may agree to if Putin dangles some shiny promises (or shinier blackmails) in front of his fat orange nose and gives him a power-handy under the negotiating table. Worse yet, imagine if ISIS manages to get their hands on a rough nuke and detonate it somewhere in the world. Suddenly we’d be living in a security state with suspended civil liberties and Trump at the helm taking notes from Putin.
Whip up enough fear, and some people will be willing to accept anything and everything as long as a tough guy promises to make them safe.
Putin knows Russia could never beat the USA in a traditional war, so he came up with the idea to create chaos within our political system, maybe our economic system, etc. But now, if he plays his cards right, he could have some bigger prizes within reach.
Quartz, you clearly have a problem of your own. Either you can’t read well or you have the attention of a goldfish.
This line of discussion started when I expressed disdain for the fact that Republicans, as a whole, like Putin more than Obama. You asked for a cite.
One was provided that shows that Putin is twice as popular than Obama among Republicans. It also shows that Putin’s approval among the GOP has nearly quadrupled during the years he has become more aggressively anti-US. You then respond that Putin’s approval of 37% is less than 100%.
In my view, having more than one in three Republicans approve of Putin, while just about one in six can muster approval of Obama, is nuts.
Without necessarily assuming the truth of this currently unsubstantiated (although admittedly highly plausible-sounding) assertion, I now REALLY want to know what the specific Russian term is that he’s talking about.
This is very bad. We should not have a good relationship with Russia. We have to be enemies with them. IF Trump doesn’t nuke Russia then he will be the worst President of all.
Don’t go being premature; he won’t be the worst POTUS until Inauguration Day. At present he’s only the worst President-elect. And you may be a crusty and infected anal fissure on the SDMB’s ass, but you’re not even the worst troll.
The fear is that Trump is so close to Putin that he will hand over Eastern Europe without a fight (or even a complaint) You may recall he’s not so hot on NATO or the UN. So, letting Russia reestablish dominance over people that are someone free now, would indeed make him a pretty bad president. And doing so because he owes a favor is a lot worse than simply miscalculating the situation.
I thought I already had you on Ignore. No matter, it’s corrected now. I see Trump as a stooge and as Putin’s bitch. And possibly a traitor, at least in the dictionary sense if not in the legalistic Constitutional sense.
Well, to be more accurate, he’s now playing the “I’m so incompetent, I can barely remember anything” defense. The “I don’t know what I said, or who I said it to” defense.
The question now is: Did Flynn lie to the Whitehouse, and then Pence went out and spread this lie unknowingly to the American people? In which case Flynn should be bounced out of his position pronto.
Or did Flynn tell the whitehouse the truth, and then Pence went out an lied knowingly to the American People? In which case Pence should be bounced out of his position pronto.
I think we all know what the response will be:
A 3:34 am tweet that says “Washington Post is a terrible paper. Circulation dropping because nobody likes them. Sad.”
This does not give the impression of someone who knows how to finesse the narrative. CNN says, hey, can you respond to what our sources are telling us? “You disgust me.”