I’m glad you posted this, in no small part because it reminded me of the New Republic, a great magazine that I had kind of forgotten about over the years.
The article is very even-handed, and lays out the highly profitable ways Trump and family have benefited from Russian connections over the decades. It strikes me as all the evidence one might need to conclude that Trump kowtows to Putin the way he does because, unexpectedly finding himself president, and not wanting to upset the person who could most fuck up future Trump business deals, he wants to keep him happy until he returns to private life. Not to suggest that Trump isn’t acting out of blackmail due to illegal activity on Trump’s part, but this sort of thing seems more plausible to me.
Putin is a trained KGB agent. Donald has gone past the place where he is currying busines favors. He is not going back to private life. He is going to have to use his resources to try and stay out of jail. If he needs putins help to stay out of jail that is the definition of blackmail.
If as suspected and as of now most likely event that he doesn’t lose a trial in the Senate, hopefully he will be brought up on charges later. But I doubt even that will happen. Most likely if a Dem wins, he or she will pull a Gerald Ford and pardon him for the so-called “good of the country”. Assuming he is indicted, sure, if he needs Putin’s help that would suggest Putin having the “goods” on him. You can probably guess IMO I don’t think that will happen.
Pardoning trump for the good of the country will be a controversial move for sure. I don’t see the reason for it. He’s not Nixon and this isn’t 1975. Nixons problems were confined to certain subjects and were domestic. tirnps problems are just about worldwide and do not have any boundaries that we can discern at the moment. Also it is significant that trumps problems are not just affecting the american people whom such a pardon would be “good for” but other nations and foreign entities who have been betrayed, insulted or just confused about the US. Is pardoning him good for these people? Whether or not this is true the US must begin repairing these relationships as soon as possible. A pardon for the trumpster fire is not going to sound good in the global community. There is an example we have to set.
I agree with all this. Our country and globe face enormous challenges, but I feel like we have no hope of acting without a functioning government, and we can’t have a functioning government until we prosecute every participant in the Trump Crime Empire.
I just watched this, and I think it’s very germane to the question in the sense of why there has been so much noise being made about Trump and Russia, short answer: deflection by projection.
Well, we all elected Trump suspecting he had hookers & blow on speed dial. That did not seem to upset people. Anyone involved in New York real estate is sort of corrupt as a given. Being corrupt makes a person liable to blackmail. Blackmailers are good at what they do, they practice. Their victims are unpracticed. The idea that President is being blackmailed cannot be discounted. In the long run, it will all come out one way or the other.
Things were not so heavy-handed before the present incumbent came on the scene. And while Dubya could say some real stoopid things, Trump, well trumps him.
As for Russian action in the 2016 election, it’s quite possible, but should be seen in the context of attempts to manipulate the social media by other parties with a viewing to skewing the results. In other words,which of the manipulators achieived the greatest effect, and how much was nullified by the others?
Jimmy Dore is a conspiracy theorist and a whack job. He is also known to have spread pro-Assad conspiracy theories while taking money from a pro-Assad organization.
Jimmy Dore is not a reliable source of information.
Your answer to someone who doesn’t believe Trump is an asset from a foreign power is to accuse the person saying that of being a foreign agent too. :smack:
If people get past your gatekeeping efforts they’ll see he cites multiple sources.
I will add, “Trump is a Russian agent” is a conspiracy theory, saying “there is no evidence to say Trump is a Russian agent” is not.
In any case that video is less about Trump and more about the extensive, seemingly corrupt, dealings of Democrat politicians with Russia and Ukraine which have a striking resemblance with the accusations levied at Trump, hence why at the begging Dore points out that one of the tools of propaganda is to accuse your opponent of the same thing you are doing.
I’d like to add that I never bother with this Elections section, since I’m not a US citizen, but I keep seeing, or rather not seeing, the elephant in the room when it relates to this whole “election meddling” discussions. There’s an entire side to the story missing from what I’ve seen in the SDMB and I think that’s a gross epistemic failure of the board.
I would also add that, AFAIK, the intent of Russia was to weaken the US by inciting internal division and conflict, the “Trump is a Russian asset” meme has worked fantastically well in that regard.
The meme has worked well in regard to Putins attempts to weaken the US?
So Putin is attempting to weaken the US?
How is he doing it? By getting liberals to go off the deep end in protesting the president? Wouldn’t it be a lot easier to just exercise some control over one person, like maybe a certain king of debt who has trouble getting loans from ordinary banks?
You actually think we need to stop curbing trump when he is admitting to dirt every day on TV and in writing? Are we down to devils advocate stuff?
The Jimmy Dore clip is blocked here at work, so no comment on that until I see it. But as the starter of this thread let me say that the conspiracy theory is a good way of putting it. I hadn’t thought about characterizing it that way. CTs can be proven true, but this one hasn’t been, not by a long shot.
That is true. A conspiracy theory can’t be said to be false, or true, without some real world investigation.
But the quote above, that you were responding to is circular, and incoherent.
It literally says that there is a conspiracy by Putin to destabilize the US, but the problem is the US citizens who are pushing for investigation. Those US citizens are “destabilizing” the country because they are finding reasonable cause in this matter. You are pushing a moscow/gop line that is a little strange IMO.
Conspiracy theory from Wiki: A conspiracy theory is an explanation of an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful actors, often political in motivation, when other explanations seem more probable.
I had never read this particular definition, but this is what I think of when I say conspiracy theory. And as I’ve mentioned in this thread, I think there are more plausible reasons that Trump does what he does rather than having to have “sinister and powerful actors” in the mix. But I’m not ruling out the possibility, however slight it is as I see it. That’s all I said there.