So I’ve gotta ask: is it even legal to simply hand over a US citizen to a foreign government of a country with which we have no formal extradition treaty? If they go ahead with this insane gesture of appeasement, how would that work? Federal marshals show up at McFaul’s home and bundle him onto a plane, kicking and screaming?
For me, the only acceptable ‘consideration’ going on should be determining the precise language we would use to tell Putin to pound sand.
This is why Putin wants to disrupt American and Western democracy. Vladimir Putin has believed for some time that the US, with its economic power and its ability to use information to subvert authoritarian regimes like his, represents a clear and present danger. But the Magnitsky Act represents a clear and present danger: as more and more countries adopt such legislation, it makes it more challenging for Russian oligarchs to store the money they’ve stolen from the Russian people.
Monday July 16 was undeniably a turning point in American history. Either we turn back to trusting our institutions and democracy itself, or we turn away from it. There is no third option: it’s either or. The line of demarcation has been drawn. People know the truth, they know the facts. The question is whether or not they believe the danger posed by Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump is remote, or clear and present. The fate of our democracy depends on this question, and the answers will be rendered within the next 12-24 months. Every Republican victory, even small ones, brings us closer to the precipice.
This is so beyond dumb and is not true. The Russians have meddled in our elections for decades. The FBI is trying to stop it.
Trump was apparently shown evidence that Putin himself ordered the election interference a couple of weeks before his inauguration and has marginalized it ever since:
From the Start, Trump Has Muddied a Clear Message: Putin Interfered
“Trump regularly picks and chooses intelligence” Sometimes the jokes just write themselves.
I’m sure the check is in the mail, comrade.
The post you’re calling “beyond dumb” and “not true” says that the Russians meddled in the US elections. And in rebuttal you say that the Russians have meddled in US elections. And this makes sense to you somehow?
Yes, the FBI are trying to stop it. And the Republicans and their Russian friends are trying to stop the FBI. Which is the problem, and the point.
As it turns out “clusterfuck” is way too charitable a word.
Trump is a clinical narcissist, entering senility. He says the EU is America’s enemy. Putin is a man who stole the Superbowl Ring from the owner of the New England Patriots, and (by order) killed people in England by injecting them with radioactive material.
Donnie insists on meeting with Vlad alone (apart from translators). Donnie has nothing bad to say about Vlad but plenty bad to say about everyone tasked with restraining Vlad’s ambitions.
Really, the only part of America that Trump likes is Fox News.
“Clusterfuck” is too charitable of a word.
I’ll put it this way: there’s interfering and there’s interfering. Using Facebook and the Internet to spread its own propaganda and messages? I’d rather they not do it, but that’s not really over the top.
But when you hack into voter databases and threaten to throw the entire system into chaos, and when you start corrupting our elected officials, then we’re getting getting close to the tripwire.
Look, the US ain’t angels - we’ve used propaganda, we’ve meddling in elections, and we’ve even funded efforts to destabilize democratically-elected regimes. What goes around comes around? Maybe, to a degree, yes. But I still expect us to fight back when it does. And in any case, I would rather us just accept that it’s wrong to meddle in others’ elections and agree not to do it again, rather than having our president say that we deserve to have our political system undermined and that he deserves to benefit from it, because that’s just an outrageous proposition.
I’m astonished by the pathetic and servile stupidity of people who seem to think the US has no right to complain about Russia’s actions.
The world is inherently a competitive place. I want my country (America) to win as much and as often as possible. I expect other countries to try to interfere, but the entire point of having a government is to try to stop that.
“America has also made wars!” Yes. We make wars on our enemies and protect our friends.
“America has also interfered in elections!” Yes. We interfere to support our own interests and damage our enemies.
I mean, Jesus Christ, that’s like playing a football game and saying the other team should be allowed to score points just because we also scored points. YES. DUH. THATS THE WHOLE POINT OF THE GAME, DUMBSHIT. We intercept the ball and tackle and score points WHILE PREVENTING THE OPPONENT FROM DOING IT TO US. GAAAAHH, DUUUUHHHH, NUUUURRR. DUMBFUCKS.
The entire point of putting “America First” is that America’s interests are placed above those of other countries. I absolutely expect Russia to interfere and attack us, and I also expect the President of the United States will try to stop them from doing that.
I cannot comprehend the craven, pathetic, and downright idiotic globalist philosophy that would even suggest Trump is right for supporting and advancing Putin’s efforts over those of his country. If you don’t believe America should come first, then why the fuck are you supporting Trump in the first place?
At this point, there wouldn’t be any serious ramifications to simply pivoting the message into “You should thank us for collaborating with the Russians in order to stop Hillary Clinton from becoming president.” His base would agree with that, and the denials and such, which make him look weak, could end.
Too bad it’s in rubles.
“…even Russian state television commentators were shocked by Trump’s “very bizarre” words, with 60 Minutes co-host Olga Skabeeva observing that, "he really smells like an agent of the Kremlin”.”
Russia’s state TV:
The host: "Let’s analyze Trump’s performance at the presser. At which point in time could you say he was licking Putin’s boots?”
Putin continues to reference the “agreements” he and Trump made in Helsinki. No one knows what those agreements might be. Trump is tweeting today about a second meeting with Putin, which apparently no one knew was in the works.
And, US intelligence told Trump prior to his inauguration that Putin personally ordered Russia’s interference in the election.
You know, I’m beginning to get worried that Trump isn’t acting in the best interest of the country. Well, at least we have good old checks and balances to put the brakes on his… Oh, never mind.
So how long can the deplorables maintain support for Trump with the “Hitlery’s/Obummer’s fault” canard? Will it take another two? three? years for mounting, untreatable illnesses and decreasing social services to make this happen? At what point will these useless, ignorant (sometimes willfully so) scumbags finally realise that преЦАРдент Trump has NOOOOOO way of being able to address, like, ANY of this. (decided to drop the question mark at the end of that last sentence)
I’ll go with that, considering President Biblical Belly Breaktrough doesn’t even give a flying turtle’s fuck about his own base.
At least with Fox it gives him the inspiration to be all presidential and stuff.
Now, now; what’s good for Donald J. Trump is good for the nation.
At this point, yes, I would prefer General Motors to run the country.
Never. They will never admit that they made a mistake, that they were conned, that even now they are bent over and being vigorously screwed. There have been multiple stories of business owners losing business, workers losing their jobs, poor rural voters losing the benefits or the health insurance they literally need to stay alive, all directly as a result of Trump’s policies, and they’re all saying “It’s only because he doesn’t know; if he knew he would help us.” And they will believe that until they die. Which, for some of them, will be sooner because of the man they placed their trust in.
Yeah, they’ve gone bankrupt fewer times, even though they’ve screwed more employees.