Putin's lapdog

[The Hammer of Witches]

The Conservative Circle:

Vladimir Putin has a plan for destroying the West—and that plan looks a lot like Donald Trump. Over the past decade, Russia hasboosted right-wing populists across Europe. It loaned money to Marine Le Pen in France, well-documented transfusions of cash to keep her presidential campaign alive. Such largesse also wended its way to the former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, who profited “personally and handsomely” from Russian energy deals, as an American ambassador to Rome once put it. (Berlusconi also shared a 240-year-old bottle of Crimean wine with Putin and apparently makes ample use of a bed gifted to him by the Russian president.)​

There’s a clear pattern: Putin runs stealth efforts on behalf of politicians who rail against the European Union and want to push away from NATO. He’s been a patron of Golden Dawn in Greece, Ataka in Bulgaria, and Jobbik in Hungary. Joe Biden warned about this effort last year in a speech at the Brookings Institution: “President Putin sees such political forces as useful tools to be manipulated, to create cracks in the European body politic which he can then exploit.” Ruptures that will likely multiply after Brexit—a campaign Russia’s many propaganda organs bombastically promoted.​

The destruction of Europe is a grandiose objective; so is the weakening of the United States. Until recently, Putin has only focused glancing attention on American elections. Then along came the presumptive Republican nominee.
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http://conservativecircle.org/forums/topic/putins-puppet-donald-trump/

Robert Reich:

1. Trump's debt load has grown dramatically over the last year, from $350 million to $630 million. At the same time, he’s been blackballed by all major US banks.​

2. Post-bankruptcy, Trump has become highly reliant on money from Russia -- most of which has over the years become increasingly concentrated among oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin.​

3. Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign manager and top advisor, spent most of the last decade as top campaign and communications advisor to Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian Ukrainian Prime Minister and then President whose ouster in 2014 led to the on-going crisis and proxy war in Ukraine. Yanukovych was and remains a close ally of Putin.​

4. Trump's foreign policy advisor on Russia and Europe is Carter Page, a man whose entire professional career has revolved around investments in Russia and who has deep and continuing financial and employment ties to Gazprom, which, in turn, is part of Putin’s financial empire.​

5. Over the course of the last year, Putin has aligned all Russian state controlled media behind Trump.​

6. The Trump Camp was totally indifferent to the Republican Party platform, with one exception: They changed the party platform to eliminate assistance to Ukraine against Russian military operations in eastern Ukraine. Not incidentally, this is the single most important issue to Putin.​

7. Trump is also suggesting the US and thus NATO might not come to the defense of NATO member states in the Baltics in the case of a Russian invasion -- another important issue to Putin.
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https://www.facebook.com/RBReich/?fref=nf

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Too many Putin haters, he is a better leader than Hillary or Trump ever could be.

 

[JustOneWay]

Too many Putin haters, he is a better leader than Hillary or Trump ever could be.

Looks like Putin has a few fans here. Interesting....

 

[HannahT]

Criticizing a elections in another country is one thing. Actively seeking to sabotage an election is something else entirely.

I'm not sure that lecturing Russia about their elections would go over lightly.

 

[smaneck]

He had the most primary votes of all time.

For Republicans. Clinton got 2.5 million more votes than he did. And he also had a the most votes in Republican history voting against him.

 

[SoldierOfTheKing]

Russophobes will like this even better:

Trump to look at recognizing Crimea as Russian territory, lifting sanctions

Vote for Donald Trump and peace or vote for Hillary Clinton and war...

 

[JustOneWay]

For Republicans. Clinton got 2.5 million more votes than he did. And he also had a the most votes in Republican history voting against him.

Who is the republican nominee? Oh, it is Trump. The republicans have embraced Trump.

 

[TheBear]

If only Putin were a Muslim, the whole world would be embracing him.

 

[imind]

republicans/conservatives dismissing this out of hand are showing obvious partisan bias, and are being hypocritical. they were screaming for hillary to be put in jail for sacrificing national security. now neither national security, nor apparently the integrity of our national elections, are so important.

 

[Eryk]

If only Putin were a Muslim, the whole world would be embracing him.

He wouldn't let himself enter the country. Heyyyy... he should convert and do us all a favor!

 

[SoldierOfTheKing]

republicans/conservatives dismissing this out of hand are showing obvious partisan bias, and are being hypocritical. they were screaming for hillary to be put in jail for sacrificing national security. now neither national security, nor apparently the integrity of our national elections, are so important.

Informing the electorate about the "dirty tricks" that DNC was up to hardly undermines the integrity of elections. On the contrary, elections require an informed electorate. Even less is it a question of national security. The DNC's emails didn't contain any classified content.

 

[smaneck]

Informing the electorate about the "dirty tricks" that DNC was up to hardly undermines the integrity of elections. On the contrary, elections require an informed electorate. Even less is it a question of national security.

Sorry, but there is a difference between leaking and hacking. Leaks are often made as a matter of conscience by people on the inside. But this information came as a result of hacking on the part of a foreign power. Even if it was the Republicans not the Russians who had done this it would have been a scandal as big as Watergate.

The DNC's emails didn't contain any classified content.

You don't seem to know that the reason we know the Russians hacked these emails is they were traced to the same two Russian security agencies that had hacked the White House, the National Security Council and the State Department. You still want to argue they are not a threat to our national security and it is perfectly okay to encourage their activities?

 

[SoldierOfTheKing]

Sorry, but there is a difference between leaking and hacking.

Hacking is gaining unauthorized access to private information. Leaking is making that information public. What we have here is both.

You don't seem to know that the reason we know the Russians hacked these emails is they were traced to the same two Russian security agencies that had hacked the White House, the National Security Council and the State Department.

There is an electronic "fingerprint" on the hacking that suggests the hackers were operating out of Russia. That's all. Even that isn't 100% conclusive.

You still want to argue they are not a threat to our national security

What we're talking about here is a hacking against the DNC. A political party is a private organization, not a government agency and as such not a breach of national security. That's all I'm saying. It embarrassed the leadership of the Democratic Party.

and it is perfectly okay to encourage their activities?

Of course not.

 

[The Hammer of Witches]

Looks like Putin has a few fans here. Interesting....

I am not a fan, he is just the lesser of three evils. While he is not the best leader, he is better than anything the rest of Russia or America has to offer right now. The law he signed banning evangelism is an example of one of his gigantic shortcomings. He is nowhere near good, just not the worst. His foreign policy and domestic policies have been pretty good overall, but there have been some serious mishaps here and there. Better than Obama could have ever done.

 

[keith99]

Trump is not Putin's lapdog. Owners feel affection towards their lapdogs. There might be a dog relationship. But it would involve switched genders and a term banned here (though popular in jail).

 

[Eryk]

Trump is not Putin's lapdog. Owners feel affection towards their lapdogs. There might be a dog relationship. But it would involve switched genders and a term banned here (though popular in jail).

Other viable nicknames:

Benedict Donald
Angry Cheeto
Hair Fuhrer

 

[SoldierOfTheKing]

Trump is not Putin's lapdog. Owners feel affection towards their lapdogs. There might be a dog relationship. But it would involve switched genders and a term banned here (though popular in jail).

The irony is that US hostility to Putin comes down to the fact that Putin will not submit to that "dog relationship" like Yeltsin did.

 

[The Cadet]

Angry Cheeto

*Soggy