Is Donald Trump a Putin patsy?

iiandyiiii , if I could ask you a personal favor…

Could you please stop engaging posters who are so obviously trying to deflect conversation away from the original post? You are helping them. Thank you so much in advance.

Okay, sorry.

Where did I say that? :confused:

Mr. Trump is strengthening NATO, not destabilizing it. :confused::confused:

Six posts ago.

The man says he wants to pull out of NATO and get them to pay us to defend them from a Russian attack.

How is that “strengthening” NATO?

I do remember that when democrats asked Comey to clarify in the hearing he had to acknowledge that yes, part of the reason why he did not even recommend to convict was that the secret emails could be missed as the marks in the few ones that were marked as such that came to Hillary were not as clearly marked as they should had been.

I concluded that Comey should not had been so harsh with Clinton in his early statements and that harshness was mostly the “would had **love **to convict Hillary” faction in the FBI that made the Republicans and their media mislead many about what was expected from this investigation.

So instead we got the media not explaining the difference between rules and laws and continuing to mislead a lot of the people. It is easier to support the prejudgement of many than explaining it to them properly.

By attacking and dismembering it!

There’s nothing of the sort in the quote that you provided. :confused:

I would think a simple idea like that would be self-explanatory :confused: but apparently not. Don’t worry, I’ll make it simple just for you.

Currently, the vast majority of NATO members do not meet their obligation in respect to 2% of GDP spending on the defense.
Here’s a simple chart that illustrates the problem.

Mrs. Clinton, during her times as State Secretary, completely failed (shocking, quite shocking) to tackle this problem.
By threatening to leave NATO Mr. Trump, quite obviously, wants to push the countries in question to meet their obligation on defense spending, thereby strengthening the alliance.

So you’re saying that allowing Russia to invade and dismember our allies will “strengthen” NATO.

Heh. Apparently the Orwellian strategy of simply asserting a lie is one of which our little online operative is quite fond. Black is white!

But getting back to Trump’s urge to make Putin happy: I suspect that Trump has a bit of a crush on ol’ Vlad. Trump seems to actually crave Putin’s approval and benediction. If Trump does gain the Presidency, it won’t be just a question of Putin rewarding Trump’s helpful-to-Russia actions with cash (though Trump is always glad to acquire more cash)–it’s that Trump actually wants Putin to clasp him in a manly embrace and smile upon him.

No, I’m saying that at all. Please re-read my explanation again.

Your explanation was that the US should abandon the North Atlantic Treaty, thereby leaving our allies to be attacked and dismembered by Russia, in the hopes that that threat will scare them into paying us protection money.

Frankly, don’t give a lot of thought to Estonia or Latvia, But Georgia’s always…no, can’t do it. It would be wrong!

Do you have a cite that the 2% GDP is an obligation? :dubious:

Mrs. Clinton never served as State Secretary. Are you quite sure you know what you’re talking about?

Ah, there’s that word again: “obligation”. :rolleyes:

This “manly embrace” thing is a bit fuzzy…

Post #93:

(bolding mine)

You clearly wrote that the FBI’s investigation showed us that Mrs. Clinton “lied about it” to investigators. The FBI said no such thing.

When the hell did that ever stop you before? :stuck_out_tongue:

Trump says NATO is obsolete.

And excuse me if I listen to an Admiral, rather than an anonymous dude on the internet:

Trump = “Deeply Dangerous”.

Let me ask a tangential question: Why has the Democratic Party become so anti-Russia of late - even before the 2014 Crimea crisis?

I wasn’t actually suggesting any homoerotic tendencies in Trump; it’s just that there’s something in the way he talks about Putin that differs from his usual way of talking about people. The remarks he makes about others tend to be very canned, repetitive, and predictable: people who cooperate with him are Classy and Great Guys; people who obstruct his will are Sad or Corrupt or the Worst.

Sociopathic narcissists crave the approval of everyone–but in a very generic way. “The Blacks love me” and “I love Hispanics!” and that sort of thing. Individuals don’t really impress him–either they are cooperative (and get generic praise) or they obstruct his will (and get generic insults). What you don’t see very often is a SN coming up with uncanned, specific praise for particular individuals–and that’s what we see with Trump’s remarks about Putin. It’s not merely He’s Very Classy or He’s a Great Guy.

Trump seems to find Putin worthy of more than just the usual canned praise. And I suspect that like other sociopathic narcissists, he’s actually impressed by someone who’s very successful at doing what the SN thinks is important–in this case, Ruling Absolutely (and going so far as to murder people who inconvenience him). I would guess that when Trump speaks admiringly of Putin and Kim Jong Un, he is revealing his wistful daydreams about holding just such absolute power, himself. People who simply eliminate their enemies are cool!! (in Trump’s view).

And he’s love to have Putin at his shoulder, nodding and approving as Trump chooses who to put on his Enemies List. Putin’s esteem and support would actually mean something to Trump. I think Trump may currently be enjoying thoughts of hosting Putin at the White House and impressing him with rounds of golf at his properties. (And perhaps a bare-chested horseback ride or two!)