It has everything to do with Manafort. Now, it's 3 degrees of Kevin Bacon: Trump > Manafort Manafort > Kilmnik Kilminik > Kremlin (aka Putin) We had to make assumptions before. Now we know. Getting the GOP to acknowledge that Russia interfered is very important for 2022 and beyond. We can't fix much if the GOP slow walks, blocks, and undermines every effort to fix this mess. Why is "Russia isn't our friend" so hard to swallow now? We all grew up hating them.
...well, to be fair (or maybe just a bit more precise)... ...I do think that, often, we (Americans) conflate "Russia" with "Soviet Union"...almost certainly we do so in a political sense... ...and the recent civil unrest there and for the past several years, really, bears that out... ...but all this is really just about the oligarchy that currently dominates what was once the Soviet Union (of which Russia is only a state in a loose confederation of them, now)... Vladimir Putin, of course, ran rings around the orbital frame of the Donald in terms of statecraft... ...and that's not saying much...Daffy Duck could have run rings around the Donald in that and just about any other regard... ...but I always believed that all this was more about loosening up the purse strings that had been drawn up tightly around Putin's finances via sanctions and the like, than any comic-bookish plot to take over the world. ...For old KGB times' sake, Putin would give the good ol' US of A as many black eyes as he could whenever he got the chance (and that's what we get for putting the Donald in charge of our corner)... ...but I don't think even Putin realized how good he'd have it, having a mark like the Donald in the President's chair...
This makes total sense. I agree with all of it, and definitely Donald 45 was the gift that kept on giving. Putin had to wake up each day just laughing at how unbelievably well Trump's presidency was working out for him. We are probably lucky that he didn't take more advantage of it.
Not sure how much more Trump could have done though. The big play was always pulling out of NATO and I don’t think Trump could have made that happen in his first term as badly as he wanted to. Second term yes. Putin’s brazeness with the GOP and Trump actually might work against him in the long run though because people like Ron Johnson and Trump are now likely providing more and more intelligence to lead direct pathways between Putin and his oligarchs for the FBI to intersect. Biden’s sanctions kind of prove this a bit. Ron Johnson’s dumb ass is probably a Russian intelligence treasure trove. That comfort level with bringing those idiots in close to actually might be the cause of being able to cause a division with his oligarchs which might be the one thing that can get him out of power.
Perhaps. But Russia got chaos, increase of division within the United States, public opinion amongst a population of the United states moved against NATO and favorably towards Russia. Our alliances were weakened. The United States withdrawal from the Open Skies treaty, Trump weakening sanctions, etc. Sure Trump didn't withdraw from NATO, but any weakening of it, helps Putin and Russia. Also we don't know the extent of intel gathered by Russia because of Trump's lax grip on securing national secrets and information. Yes, I agree that hopefully it will uncover weaknesses and loose ends to shore up our security, but it seems like that would only get it back to even. Hopefully going forward we will see more progress.
I was hopeful when he called out Saudi, then just like past presidents he bowed down to maybe one of the most disruptive corrupting forces let alone biggest sponsors and spreaders of Wahhabism terrorism which hurts America most, he’s on record talking about how he likes them before his presidency because they spend 50 plus million on toys from him in cash. I was hopeful when he said Hilary should give back Saudis money to her women’s program due to the obvious hypocrisy in that nature, then they took a similar amount for ivankas programs. Let alone loved the idea of ending senseless wars, but then he sent even more troops for a Saudi war we had nothing to do with, and said ‘they paid for it’ But when it comes, you can look up actual letters Trump wrote to Putin to gain his favor, inviting him to his pageant eagerly, he was a private citizen then so its not as bad, but they were desperate. They’ve also been trying to build buildings there for ages so it seems odd to deny any connection, and the press conferences were just awkward as he, in the early ends, rejected any intelligence from the us and said Putin said no ‘strongly’ so i have no reason to doubt it. It was just a weak showing that must’ve made Putin chuckle. But politics is dirty, here’s the name of the game People have short memories, in 2016 he was screaming that it was rigged far before the election, afterwards he said well i dont care now or it doesn’t matter because we won now, he said this in a rally. There are so many quotes that he contradicts himself, its odd they say he tells it like it is, or that he is a true conservative, or america first. He’s always been trump first, the amount of them replacing the swamp with their own gators and helping themselves was absurd. I get the criticism of Biden, I have plenty, likewise of Clinton, but its hard to understand those same people are not seeing those things when he almost admits them openly with trump. That’s the issue with tribalism in politics
Maybe it's because I don't speak fluid Trump, but I kind of have no idea what the hell he's talking about. It sounds like he's trying to make up some alibi but actually confessing because it's so weirdly articulated. News to Trump... your voters wont give you Sh$ts if you are literally on Putin's payroll. They like Putin, and wish that America was run the same way. What's amazing is this guy cares more about the liberal coverage of him than he does with the people that worship him like a golden god. He only really fights the Russia story because for some reason he hates the way it's covered in the MSM. Has nothing to do with the actual political implications of it with his base who actually think it's cool.
It's so ****ing great to not have to listen to that **** every day. Cry more cons @basso @Os Trigonum @tinman
to the extent that this is the first time the US Gov't, via the Treasury Dept, has link the 2016 Trump presidential campaign to the Russian Intelligence Services, it is new. recall that former AG Bill Barr had previously "white-washed" the Mueller report with this summary
