Donald Trump of course was forced into sanctions against the Russians by Congress. He is the one who shares intelligence sources & methods with them. He is the one who cut off aid to the Ukrainians fighting the Russians. He is the fellow who does not seem to support NATO.
But you have to understand that all that was done at the direction of the Kremlin to make it look like he’s not working with them.
You just have to play 5D chess at the level of Comrade Putin.
Again, it’s not what Putin is or is not doing. It’s about what our own government, tasked with safeguarding our elections, is failing to do.
Among other things, because he’s destroying confidence and goodwill to America around the world, and he’s sabotaging the American constitutional system. Putin wants a weaker America, and so far, with Trump, he’s getting it in spades.
Your ignorance on this subject is staggering. I hope you choose to enhance your knowledge.
Here is a good place to start. (Moscow Project)
The recap is a year old, but it will give you an idea of how many ways Putin has benefited from Trump’s occupation of the White House.
Cite? (For the “sleeping with” part.)
I see it as an assault on national sovereignty, an escalation in tensions, and as a test. What can they get away with? How far can they go? I’d like to see a strong, yet non-violent, response as a warning,
That is literally a nonsense hit piece funded by the liberal Center for American Progress Action Fund.Your cite is a joke. This is why the Democratic party is losing voters.
Despite the politically motivated opinion piece of your cite I’ve posted the physical actions of Trump showing the opposite. He directly opposed a Russian pipeline until Germany agreed to build the necessary infrastructure to neutralize Russia’s ability to use it as a political weapon.
This was no small political challenge to Russia’s attempt at making Germany subservient to Russian energy supplies like they did with Poland. It was a pre-emptive Berlin Airlift that Trump got Germany to pay for. It needed to be done and Trump delivered. This is the kind of leadership that NATO needs and it was a huge blow to Russia.
We are financially and militarily stronger since Trump came to office. It is literally the opposite of what you just said and in no way represents the wishes of Putin or Russia.
Trump administration targets Russian oil company for helping Venezuela skirt sanctions.
If he tweeted “fuck Putin in the ass” would it make you happy? At what point will it sink in that it’s a Democratic Party meme that Russia supports Trump.
Don’t forget that the Washington Post is owned by Jeff Bezos, who will lose a tiny percentage of his money if Bernie’s economic policy passes.
That is a joke, but go on believing White House propaganda if you want.
US corporate interests > Russia > NATO allows. Don’t even pretend that isn’t true.
Putin doesn’t seem to care. That’s when Trump does something anti-Russia. And that killing 300 Russian mercenaries? I see no evidence that Trump was ever involved in that. Mattis gave the order to “annihilate” the attackers, and at the time, the Administration went to great lengths to assure everyone that no actual Russian troops were killed… which is questionable at best.
Anyways, seem like a real anti-Russia politician would have said something about it. Can you find a tweet or something in which Trump claims credit for killing 300 Russians? I mean, he claims credit for everything else, so surely he’s talked endlessly about how tough he is on Russian mercenaries trying to kill Americans.
(And of course, later that year, Trump orders US troops out of Syria and Mattis quits. I’m sure you’ll say that was anti-Russia too, right?)
People who really dislike Trump are not going to admit that his actual policies have not been in any discernible way, compared to previous admin or what various Democratic challengers are saying, pro-Russian. But they pretty obviously are not.
OTOH a ban on fracking in the US would be a significant positive for Russia/Putin. I think on that issue alone under the theory that Putin is clever not stupid, he could well want Sanders to win over Trump. I’m not saying Sanders or Trump takes their position on that issues in view of how it would affect Putin or that they should factor that in much, but there’s a pretty basic lack of logic IMO in claiming how obvious it is that Russia favors Trump. Given that it’s a petro-state basically and US oil/gas production is the marginal factor holding oil/gas prices at relatively unfavorable levels for a petro-state, where one wing of one US party positively wants to cut US fossil fuel production potentially drastically, though again not because of its effect on Russia.
Then defense spending similarly. Against which there’s pretty much just innuendo that Trump favors Russia policy wise in any other way, becoming more and more strained a hypothesis as Trump admin has unfolded. Trump claim he’s ‘tough on Russia’ isn’t obvious, and compared to what? But same going the other way, in what real way is it obvious Obama or HRC or GW Bush or any other recent/hypothetical specific comparison would act a whole lot differently, or that it would actually be good for the US if so, which is the basic idea of being US president, not acting against other countries/regimes as end in itself (eg. Trump cuts back US involvement in Syria, but previous admin was very reluctant to get involved at all…and wasn’t necessarily wrong).
Besides foreign policy per se, one could argue ‘but the Trump admin welcomes Russian interference in US elections’. But again the fatal weak point in that argument IMO is showing why Putin would actually prefer Trump over an anti-fossil fuel candidate who would also need to cut defense spending (among other measures including tax increases of less direct concern to Putin) to fund a big increase in social welfare spending. If it’s not obvious why Putin should prefer Trump, and it’s not IMO, it’s all the more credible that Russian efforts this time would be pro-Sanders, and not necessarily limited to the primaries.
OTOH though Russian interference is a serious matter, the effects have often been hysterically overblown IMO, and the realization that Russia might actually prefer Sanders to Trump might at least get some people on the left to view the issue more realistically (though maybe now make some people on the right engage in bat shit exaggerations about it).
At least he gave them aid, it wasn’t cut off.
Sorry if this has been posted elsewhere, but Jake Tapper says on twitter that the claim that Russia is helping Sanders because they want him in the White House is not accurate - looks like there’s no dispute Russia is helping Sanders, just a dispute over whether it extends beyond the Dem primary. Just to clarify, this is not an independently verified/vetted report, it’s just Tapper reporting on one source he “trusts”.
So on the one hand there is the release of this report, which already smelled fishy, but this is further reason to believe the decision to release this information and the timing of the release had political motivations.
On the other hand there is a dispute as far as what the intel community actually knows. This doesn’t dispute that they know of a Russian attempt to boost Sanders in the primary, but it is disputing that they know that Russia has any motive beyond messing with the Dem primary.
Also, just looking at the “no preference right now” line, this might just be a case of normally the intel community is very careful about public release of info because even though it’s fairly obvious Russia prefers Trump as President, they don’t want to say anything beyond what they can prove based on credible evidence. It’s possible that there is also some reason for them to believe Russia does have a preference for Sanders as President but insufficient hard evidence, but O’Brien decided to make the speculation public, which the anonymous official objects to.
Also possible that everything Tapper heard is bad info.
I hope we get a clearer picture of this, but it’s tough to draw any conclusions right now, other than we know Russia is boosting Sanders to throw a wrench in the Democratic primary.
So I have my copy of Good Omens here, opened at the bit where Crowley tells fellow demons Hastur and Ligur of his evil deed of tying up all cellphones for 45 minutes during lunchtime.
“What could he tell them? That twenty thousand people got bloody furious? that you could hear the arteries clanging shut all across the city? And that then they went back and took it out on their secretaries or traffic wardens or whatever, and they took it out on other people? In all kinds of vindictive little ways which, and here is the good bit, they thought up themselves. For the rest of the day. The pass-along effects were incalculable. Thousands and thousands of souls all got a fain patina of tarnish, and you hardly had to lift a finger.”
Crowley would have it easier now, this days all it takes is for the idea that a finger may had been lifted to set off people.
Asahi endorses your posts.
You’re not wrong to have these concerns, JT.
You’re not wrong.
Ah: handwaving; is there nothing it can’t attempt to diminish?
People without facts wave their hands.
Trump does not have the power to withhold the funds in the first place, so no credit to him.