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Post by Outsider on Jul 17, 2018 5:46:12 GMT -5
Note the source!!! Putin eats Trump's lunch in Helsinki -- This is no way to win against Russia Monday in Helsinki, President Trump left many deeply disappointed in his approach to his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. There was nothing inherently wrong with Trump’s summit with Putin. In fact, I would argue that in many cases, some of the best diplomacy comes through face-to-face meetings with adversaries. Still, the meeting was highly problematic in how little Trump delivered on the serious issues surrounding Vladimir Putin and Russia’s place in the modern world. At their joint press conference, President Putin was calculated and in control. Conversely, President Trump seemed to lack authority, praising Putin when he should have been condemning him, and ceding opportunities to confront Putin on his most egregious actions of the past decade – including meddling in the 2016 election and the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. During Putin and Trump’s prepared remarks, it was rather obvious who had led the discussion. While President Putin laid out a clear framework for advancing Russian interests within the context of U.S.-Russia relations, Trump appeared to have had little plan, alternating between vague promises of improving our relationship with Russia and spending too much time on U.S. domestic affairs, notably the 2016 presidential election. Instead of holding Putin accountable for his election interference, he referenced his defeat of Hillary Clinton. For a sitting U.S. president to say publicly that he believes a foreign leader over his own intelligence team is shocking and admonishable. At a time when our democracy faces grave threats, it is deeply troubling that the president would side with the very country who attacked us. When Trump said, “It’s a shame that there could even be a little bit of a cloud over it. People know that, people understand it,” it was a clear example of him circumventing the question. At one point, President Trump even cited, incorrectly, the Electoral College tallies from over two years ago. This was all in an attempt to deflect questions that he was apparently unable to answer. Crucially, there were no concessions from Russia on any of the issues that needed to be addressed. Even more concerning, Trump was unwilling to even make the United States’ case on these issues, and the failure to hear concessions from Putin mirrors the lack of follow-through on the grand promises of the recent North Korean summit with another murderous authoritarian, Kim Jong Un. Despite each nation backing different sides in the Syrian conflict, Trump suggested he and Putin would begin working in conjunction to bring humanitarian aid to the people of Syria, regardless of the fact that the need for humanitarian aid largely stems from Putin’s unabashed support for Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad. Additionally, Trump also failed to address the concerns of our NATO allies Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in the Baltics regarding the territorial threats they persistently face. Trump, throughout the entire press conference, failed to condemn or even acknowledge the illegality of Putin’s actions in Crimea and Ukraine. When asked if he would hold Russia accountable for any of its past actions, Trump deflected and deferred. President Trump’s unwillingness to stand up to Russia on this issue only serves to weaken the Western alliance and encourage further Russian incursions into the territory of sovereign nations now that Putin knows Trump will give him a pass. Most importantly, on election meddling, Trump refused to stand with U.S. intelligence and charge Putin with interference, saying he doesn’t “see any reason why it would be” the Russians carrying out the illegal meddling. For a sitting U.S. president to say publicly that he believes a foreign leader over his own intelligence team is shocking and admonishable. At a time when our democracy faces grave threats, it is deeply troubling that the president would side with the very country who attacked us. Additionally, Trump’s failure to distinguish between campaign collusion and Russia’s blatant attack on our democracy allowed Putin to sow more discord during the press conference. “Could you name a single fact that would definitely prove the collusion? This is utter nonsense, just like the president recently mentioned,” Putin told a reporter. Trump, and our country for that matter, can only win against Putin if we are assertive about American goals and our values. President Trump failed to accomplish that on Monday. Instead of standing up to Putin, Trump offered to cooperate with Russia on some of the very issues that Russia is causing. As some very wise analysts have noted, this strategy is like allowing a criminal to investigate his own crimes. It is foolish and naive and President Trump must simply do better going forward. www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/07/16/putin-eats-trumps-lunch-in-helsinki-this-is-no-way-to-win-against-russia.htmlWhen you've lost Fox news.. No wonder Wernie hasn't been around. The poor guys head must be spinning. He's waiting on orders from Russia before he can comment.
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Post by Outsider on Jul 17, 2018 5:51:07 GMT -5
(CNN)President Donald Trump has sent a lot of bad tweets. He's tweeted things that aren't true. He's tweeted personal attacks about everyone from Hillary Clinton to Mika Brzezinski and back. He's called North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un "Little Rocket Man." But a tweet he sent Monday morning -- just hours before sitting down with Russian President Vladimir Putin -- has to be the worst. "Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!," tweeted Trump. Let's be very, very clear about what Trump's tweet suggests: That the reason the US and Russia have an adversarial relationship is because of the special counsel investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 election. Staggering. Stunning. Surreal. www.cnn.com/2018/07/16/politics/trump-tweet-putin/index.html
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Post by Outsider on Jul 17, 2018 6:02:43 GMT -5
What Jonathan Chait Gets Right About Trump and Russia Thirty years of contacts with Russia are hard to dismiss as a series of disconnected events. Jonathan Chait has written a long piece on President Donald Trump’s myriad ties to Russia. The reaction is about what you’d expect: Trump’s most feverish critics see it as the indictment of a Manchurian Candidate who is now The Red President. Trump’s defenders have dismissed the piece (and Chait) as just another example of how the left can descend into the conspiracy theory fever swamps as quickly as anyone else. Chait’s piece, however, deserves a fairer reading than it’s getting. Whatever else it may be, it is fundamentally a damning tally of the degree to which the Russian state has woven itself into the life of the current commander in chief. I should note here that I do not write from any unique knowledge of the Trump case beyond what is available in the historical record. Rather, I am a specialist in Russian affairs with experience extending back to the Cold War, and neither Chait’s narrative nor his conclusions (with some exceptions) strike me as unreasonable. This isn’t to say that the piece isn’t flawed in some important areas. (The title, right off the bat, suggests that Vladimir Putin is Trump’s “handler,” as though Putin is personally directing Trump. This is over the top.) Chait is also too willing to just accept “it might be true” as a good enough explanation of things like the infamous “pee tape,” which requires too much unsupported extrapolation. There’s also the problem that the article grants far too much power and agency to the Russians, as though they merely imposed Trump on America as an act of magnificent tradecraft. The piece isn’t helped by a Glenn Beck-style chart—scores of multicolored lines connecting head shots of people in maze-like ways—which most people will likely not take the time to read. The overall effect is to encourage the view that the Kremlin installed its preferred candidate in the White House after grooming him for his big moment over the course of 30 years. This is the wrong way to think about the entire issue. It helps instead to consider Trump not as a “recruit,” but as an investment. It is ridiculous to believe the Russians had a crystal ball, or a psychic who shook hands with Trump, like Johnny in The Dead Zone, and saw a future president. Rather, they took an interest in a wealthy American businessman with contacts throughout New York’s financial and political worlds. Indeed, as Chait notes, if the Russians hadn’t zeroed in on Trump—a man whose venality, vanity and vulgarity are like a menu of recruitable weaknesses—they’d have been guilty of intelligence malpractice. That’s why Chait’s article is worth a careful reading: He has laid out the mind-numbing history and facts of Trump’s dealings with Russia in one place. From Trump’s first meetings with the Soviets (which apparently convinced him that he should become a voice on international security and nuclear affairs) to his numerous dealings with the world of Russian finance, to his jaw-dropping hire of Paul Manafort, a man whose résumé includes work aimed at keeping a Putin crony in power in Ukraine, the litany of direct and indirect contacts with the Kremlin exceeds all possible exculpatory explanations. Trump’s defenders over the past few years have gotten a lot of mileage by isolating each of these facts and treating them as insignificant. Chait, however, has gathered them together, and the picture they present is alarming, much in the way a lot of small debts don't look like financial ruin until you write them down and tally them up. These facts, from the depth of Trump’s financial dealings to the personal connections of some of his top advisers and campaign staff to the Putin regime, are (or should be) undeniable. It is impossible to see the total picture and reach the conclusion that there is an innocent explanation behind it all. There’s simply too much to explain away. In plowing through this history, three things should be kept in mind. First, the amount of contact Chait illustrates between Trump world and the Russians is simply staggering. Even by the standards of international business, this is an astonishing amount of interaction that involves not just Trump’s financial interests, but vertically deep ties that extend down into his family. Second, too many Americans do not understand that Russia’s oligarchs, millionaires, business leaders, state officials and intelligence operatives are all part of the same ecosystem. It is not possible to shake hands with just one arm of this octopus without being enveloped by the others. If Trump was in deep with the Russian criminal and financial worlds, the Russian intelligence services knew it, and so did Russia’s top spook, Putin. Trump must know this as well. Third, Chait’s readers should not be looking for silver bullets that either doom or exonerate Trump. Rather, they should follow the argument about a pattern of interaction that would raise the suspicions of even the most amateur intelligence analyst. Chait does not assert that Trump is a foreign agent, instead calling him an “asset.” I am not sure I agree, at least not as an “asset” in the sense of someone who is knowingly trying to help the Russians, with their explicit guidance, against the United States. Instead, what Chait presents, without having to get too far out on a ledge about agents or assets, is a plausible case that a U.S. president is compromised by a foreign power that has damaging information about him. But how would such compromising work in practice? Chait’s critics might be watching too much television. This is not an episode of The Americans. No one issues orders, and anyone looking for such evidence is likely to be disappointed. Rather, over time, as relationships grow, favors are asked. Friendships are pressed into service. The key is to induce the target to do what you want without telling him to do it—to be a friend, helping out friends. Later, there’s no need to receive instruction from a “handler” in the Kremlin. If the president is worried about what the Russians have on him, he may proactively be doing things he believes will keep him in good stead with Putin. A general sense of anxiety could well produce more cooperation than any direct order. This would explain why Trump always seems fearful and defensive whenever the subject of Putin is raised, and why he seems constantly eager to impress the Russian president at every turn. After starting a trade war with U.S. allies and questioning, as he has many times, the value of NATO, Trump has told Putin that his own staff is “stupid” for trying to keep him from getting too cozy with the Kremlin boss, and that he expects his summit with Putin to be the “easiest” of his many recent meetings. But why, critics might ask, would Trump and his cronies risk everything in an election if they were in so deep with the Russians? The key to this apparent stupidity, I think, is that no one involved in the Trump campaign, including the president, expected to win. Indeed, for Trump and his circle, losing would have been the best outcome: Trump would become the de facto leader of the GOP, his advisers would have a direct line to the majority in Congress, and they could operate as a shadow government, dogging Hillary Clinton around the country while making scads of money in everything from consulting to merchandising. People like Manafort and Michael Flynn could parlay their time in the campaign into access and credibility among Republicans. Winning screwed all that up. Suddenly, all those Russian contacts were a problem. This was a nightmare for Team Trump, but an accidental windfall for Team Putin. The junk stock it invested in back in the 1980s was now a blue chip. Victory therefore required a lot of quick mobilization to limit any possible damage, and to protect the new administration from revelations no one thought would matter after November 2016. If Chait’s narrative at times seems to lean on people acting strangely, bear in mind that these might have been the actions of people who never expected to be in the White House. Finally, whatever one thinks of Chait’s piece, the attacks from Trump defenders are no more than a reflex that reveals the exhausting double-standard that pro-Trump Republicans must now carry like a cinder block around their necks. People who once wanted to imprison Hillary Clinton for a uranium deal approved by the U.S. government are now waving away 30 years of Moscow’s personal and financial investments in Trump as though it’s nothing more than a condo purchase on an overdrawn checking account. I do not know how much pressure the president is under from the Russians. Neither does Chait. Neither do Trump’s defenders. We may never get the full story, unless it is revealed to us by Robert Mueller or found in a future tranche of declassified documents. But there is no way to read Chait’s story—or to do any judicious review of Trump’s dealings with the Russians over years—and reach any other conclusion but that the Kremlin has damaging and deeply compromising knowledge about the president. Whether it is using such materials, and how, is a matter of legitimate argument. That such things exist, however, and that they seem to be preoccupying the president, should be obvious. www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/07/10/trump-russia-jonathan-chait-218966
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Post by Outsider on Jul 17, 2018 6:04:32 GMT -5
From the beginning of his administration, President Trump has responded to every new bit of evidence from the C.I.A., F.B.I. and N.S.A. that Russia intervened in our last election on his behalf by either attacking Barack Obama or the Democrats for being too lax — never President Vladimir Putin of Russia for his unprecedented cyberhit on our democratic process. Such behavior by an American president is so perverse, so contrary to American interests and values, that it leads to only one conclusion: Donald Trump is either an asset of Russian intelligence or really enjoys playing one on TV. Everything that happened in Helsinki today only reinforces that conclusion. My fellow Americans, we are in trouble and we have some big decisions to make today. This was a historic moment in the entire history of the United States. There is overwhelming evidence that our president, for the first time in our history, is deliberately or through gross negligence or because of his own twisted personality engaged in treasonous behavior — behavior that violates his oath of office to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Trump vacated that oath today, and Republicans can no longer run and hide from that fact. Every single Republican lawmaker will be — and should be — asked on the election trail: Are you with Trump and Putin or are you with the C.I.A., F.B.I. and N.S.A.? It started with the shocking tweet that Trump issued before he even sat down with Putin this morning: “Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!” The official Twitter account of the Russian foreign ministry — recognizing a useful idiot when it saw one — immediately “liked” Trump’s tweet and later added: “We agree.” I’ll bet they do. It only got worse when, in his joint news conference with Putin, Trump was asked explicitly if he believed the conclusion of his intelligence agencies that Russia hacked our elections. The president of the United States basically threw his entire intelligence establishment under a bus, while throwing out a cloud of dust about Hillary Clinton’s server to disguise what he was doing. Trump actually said on the question of who hacked our election, “I don’t see any reason why it would be” Russia. And in a bit of shocking moral equivalence, Trump added of the United States and Russia: “We are all to blame … both made some mistakes.” Trump said that it was actually the American probe into the Russian hacking that has “kept us apart.” To watch an American president dis his own intelligence agencies, blame both sides for the Russian hacking of our election — and deliberately try to confuse the fact that there is still no solid proof of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia with the fact that Russia had its own interest in trying to defeat the anti-Putin Hillary Clinton — actually made me sick to my stomach. I completely endorse the former C.I.A. director John O. Brennan’s tweet after the news conference: “Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of ‘high crimes & misdemeanors.’ It was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump’s comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots: Where are you???” EDITORS’ PICKS 1,600 Degrees and Mass Destruction: Explore a Town a Volcano Made a Tomb 3 Days in Wyoming With Kanye West Trump’s Advantage in a Trade War: A Strong Economy Trump is simply insanely obsessed with what happened in the last election. But now he is president, and the fact that he may not have colluded with the Russians doesn’t mean he does not, as president, have a responsibility to ensure that the Russians be punished for interfering in our last election on their own and be effectively deterred from doing so in the future. That is in his job description. Listening to Trump, it was as if Franklin Roosevelt had announced after Pearl Harbor: “Hey, both sides are to blame. Our battleships in Hawaii were a little provocative to Japan — and, by the way, I had nothing to do with the causes for their attack. So cool it.” There is only one message Trump should have sent Putin in this meeting today: “You have attacked our democracy, as well as two core pillars of the global economic and security order that have kept the peace and promoted prosperity since World War II — the European Union and NATO. We are not interested in any of your poker-faced denials. Just know that if you keep doing it, we will consider it an act of war and we will not only sanction you like never before, but you’ll taste every cyberweapon we have in our arsenal — and some of your most intimate personal secrets will appear on the front pages of every newspaper in the world. Is there any part of that sentence you do not understand? “So we will be watching you between now and our midterm elections,” Trump should have added. “I’m sure you know the date. If you behave well, we’ll talk again in December 2018 about anything you want — Ukraine, Syria, Crimea or arms control. Until then our C.I.A. and N.S.A. are on to you and your cyberspooks. And Vlad, as you may have noticed from my Justice Department’s recent indictment of 12 of your agents, you are not as good as you think.” That is what a real American president, sworn to protect and defend the Constitution, would have said to Putin today. He would have understood that this meeting had only one agenda item — and it was not developing an “extraordinary” relationship. It was d-e-t-e-r-r-e-n-c-e — deterrence of a Russia that has been increasingly reckless and destabilizing. In the past few years what has Putin done to deserve an American president sucking up to him for an “extraordinary” relationship? Putin has seized Crimea, covertly invaded Ukraine, provided the missiles that shot down a civilian Malaysian airliner over Ukraine, bombed tens of thousands of refugees out of Syria into Europe, destabilizing Europe, been involved in the death of a British woman who accidentally handled a Russian nerve agent deployed to kill ex-Russian agents in England and deployed misinformation to help tip the vote in Britain toward exiting and fracturing the European Union. Most of all, Putin unleashed a cyberattack on America’s electoral process, aimed at both electing Trump — with or without Trump’s collusion — and sowing division among American citizens. Our intelligence agencies have no doubt about this: Last week, America’s director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, described Putin’s cybercampaign as one designed “to exploit America’s openness in order to undermine our long-term competitive advantage.” Coats added that America’s digital infrastructure “is literally under attack,” adding that there was “no question” that Russia was the “most aggressive foreign actor.” I am not given to conspiracy theories, but I cannot help wondering if the first thing Trump said to Putin in their private one-on-one meeting in Helsinki, before their aides were allowed to enter, was actually: “Vladimir, we’re still good, right? You and me, we’re still good?” And that Putin answered: “Donald, you have nothing to worry about. Just keep being yourself. We’re still good.” www.nytimes.com/2018/07/16/opinion/trump-and-putin-vs-america.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fopinion
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Post by LA_Randy on Jul 17, 2018 6:23:26 GMT -5
Sounds like an admission to me: Putin On Stolen Dem Emails: ‘Was This Any False Information Planted? No’ Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to defend the theft of Democratic emails somewhat in an interview Monday — while continuing to deny that Russia interfered in the 2016 American election — by saying the emails were real and not fabricated. “Russia, as a state, has never interfered with the internal affairs of the United States, let alone its elections,” Putin told Fox News’ Chris Wallace through a translator, repeating a consistent claim. He added: “Do you really believe that someone acting from the Russian territory could have influenced the United States, and influenced the choice of millions of Americans? This is utterly ridiculous.” Wallace stopped him. “I’m not asking whether they influenced, I’m asking whether they tried.” “The idea was about hacking an email account of a Democratic candidate,” Putin responded. “Was it some rigging of facts? Was it some forgery of facts? That’s the important point that I am trying to make. Was this any false information planted? No, it wasn’t.” The Russian leader noted that some of the emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee and later published online revealed Democratic Party officials who were biased in favor of Hillary Clinton, despite the party not making an endorsement in the primary. Wallace interjected: “You’re indicating that they stole real money, not counterfeit money. So are you saying it’s okay because the facts that they took from the DNC, from John Podesta, it was their real emails so it’s okay to hack, and spread this information out and interfere with the election?” “The information that I am aware of, there’s nothing false about it,” Putin said, not answering Wallace’s question. He moved on, urging special counsel Robert Mueller to formally request Russia’s investigative help in the probe into Russian election meddling. talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/putin-on-stolen-dem-emails-was-this-any-false-information-planted-no
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Post by LA_Randy on Jul 17, 2018 6:34:23 GMT -5
Putin tells Russian state TV Trump gave him a ‘very interesting offer’ on Ukraine and discussed getting around sanctions Matthew Rojansky, Director of the Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute, told CNN’s Don Lemon Monday evening that Russian President Vladimir Putin had a lot to say about the two-hour meeting with President Donald Trump. Rojansky began by explaining that it is his job “to watch these kinds of meetings and figure out where the relationship itself is going.” According to Rojansky, Putin went from the meeting with Trump to a Russian state television interview in which he reviewed the things that the two men talked about. In the interview, Rojansky said Putin talked “about a number of actually pretty significant things.” “They talked about a deal in southern Syria, which would possibly be about pushing Iranian forces out,” he explained. “That this had been pre-agreed with the Israelis. That this would increase security. But in exchange [Bashar al] Assad clearly was going to re-take the country. Putin noted he already had 90 percent of the country.” They also evidently discussed Ukraine. “And Putin described something as ‘a very interesting offer,'” Rojansky said. “We don’t actually know of what the offer consisted, but it’s very interesting to me that they discussed Ukraine and Putin said that there is ‘an interesting offer’ there.” He then said that the “kicker” was that they spoke about sanctions without talking about sanctions. “So, when asked whether Putin asked for sanctions relief, Putin, of course, as a matter of Russian pride and also, I think, a negotiating tactic, knowing Trump could hand over sanctions relief, he simply says, ‘No but we talked about the interests of our two business communities in increasing economic ties and how we might do that in the current environment.’ So, that’s code for, ‘Yeah, they talked about how to get around sanctions.’ They actually had it as surprisingly substantive conversation. We heard none of it in the press conference,” Rojansky closed. Trump said that no other person could be in the meeting other than translators, so neither American leaders, administration officials or intelligence officers will have information on what was said. Trump has yet to discuss the two-hour meeting, other than to say that it was good. www.rawstory.com/2018/07/putin-tells-russian-state-tv-trump-gave-interesting-offer-ukraine-discussed-getting-around-sanctions/
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Post by LA_Randy on Jul 17, 2018 6:40:33 GMT -5
Judge rules for Trump administration in suit over family-planning program shift federal judge ruled on Monday against birth control organizations that sought to block the Trump administration from shifting a federal family-planning grant program toward prioritizing groups that are faith-based and counsel abstinence. Three planned Parenthood organizations along with the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association filed lawsuits, which were later combined, in May challenging guidelines the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued in February. Those guidelines set forth new criteria for how the department under Republican President Donald Trump would assess applications for grants under the Title X family planning program. The grants are expected to total $260 million. The organizations objected to the criteria’s focus on abstinence, easier access to primary health care, increasing family participation and cooperation with faith-based organizations, according to the ruling. The organizations argued that the changes require a notice and comment rule-making process, violate the Title X law and were “arbitrary and capricious.” United States District Court Judge Trevor McFadden, who was appointed by Trump in 2017, said in his ruling that “courts cannot review substantive objections to a non-final agency action, nor can they require formal rulemaking for a change in agency procedure.” McFadden also said that if he could rule on the merits of the case, the government’s changes align with program’s commitment to support “voluntary family projects … offering a broad range of acceptable and effective family planning methods and services.” Vice President Mike Pence, a former Indiana governor and strident opponent of abortion, has pushed Congress to defund Planned Parenthood. The non-profit’s clinics provide contraception, health screenings and abortions. “The Trump-Pence administration is trying to impose its ideology on people – no matter how many it hurts,” Dawn Laguens, Executive Vice President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement on Monday, adding that the ruling could effect the health care of four million people. Planned Parenthood health centers serve more than 40 percent of patients receiving care subsidized by Title X. HHS could not be reached for comment. www.rawstory.com/2018/07/judge-rules-trump-administration-suit-family-planning-program-shift/
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Post by LA_Randy on Jul 17, 2018 7:09:51 GMT -5
Trump Doubles Down On Putin’s Denial: Probe Has ‘Driven A Wedge Between Us’ Just minutes after he left journalists, lawmakers and former government officials in shock when he sided with Russia during a freewheeling press conference with Vladimir Putin, President Donald Trump doubled down on his support of Putin’s denial of Russian meddled in the 2016 election. Recounting his one-on-one conversation with Putin during an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity after the presser, Trump lamented that the Russia probe had placed a “wedge” between the U.S. and Russia “It is very sad what is happening to our country because of this,” he said. “When you see this thing going on and I will tell you, it has driven a wedge between us and Russia, maybe we’ve just knocked down that wedge, but it has driven a wedge and President Putin said, one of the early things that he said when we started, it’s really a shame because we could do so much good.” He also grumbled that journalists chose to ask questions about special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe during the press conference, when they could’ve asked about “nuclear proliferation” or humanitarian aid in Syria. “And we get questions on the witch hunt and I don’t think the people out in the country buy it, but the reporters like to give it a shot,” he said. “I thought that President Putin was very, very strong. … And he also said there’s absolutely no collusion, which you know and everybody that watches your show knows, and I think most of the country knows and and Tucker [Carlson] standing right over there definitely knows because he gets it.” talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-doubles-down-putins-denial
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Post by Outsider on Jul 17, 2018 7:20:04 GMT -5
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Post by Outsider on Jul 17, 2018 7:20:21 GMT -5
Trump Doubles Down On Putin’s Denial: Probe Has ‘Driven A Wedge Between Us’ Just minutes after he left journalists, lawmakers and former government officials in shock when he sided with Russia during a freewheeling press conference with Vladimir Putin, President Donald Trump doubled down on his support of Putin’s denial of Russian meddled in the 2016 election. Recounting his one-on-one conversation with Putin during an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity after the presser, Trump lamented that the Russia probe had placed a “wedge” between the U.S. and Russia “It is very sad what is happening to our country because of this,” he said. “When you see this thing going on and I will tell you, it has driven a wedge between us and Russia, maybe we’ve just knocked down that wedge, but it has driven a wedge and President Putin said, one of the early things that he said when we started, it’s really a shame because we could do so much good.” He also grumbled that journalists chose to ask questions about special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe during the press conference, when they could’ve asked about “nuclear proliferation” or humanitarian aid in Syria. “And we get questions on the witch hunt and I don’t think the people out in the country buy it, but the reporters like to give it a shot,” he said. “I thought that President Putin was very, very strong. … And he also said there’s absolutely no collusion, which you know and everybody that watches your show knows, and I think most of the country knows and and Tucker [Carlson] standing right over there definitely knows because he gets it.” talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-doubles-down-putins-denialOnly the guilty fear the truth..
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Post by Outsider on Jul 17, 2018 7:26:12 GMT -5
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Post by Outsider on Jul 17, 2018 7:29:31 GMT -5
Central Figure in the NRA-Russia Scandal Arrested for Acting as a Foreign Agent Maria Butina has been charged with conspiracy to infiltrate the gun rights group to further Russian interests A central figure in Russia’s campaign to seduce the NRA – the subject of a Rolling Stone investigation in April – has been arrested in Washington, D.C. Maria Butina is charged with “conspiracy to act as an agent of the Russian Federation within the United States.” A supporting affidavit alleges a Russian campaign “to infiltrate” a “GUN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION” (by all appearances the NRA) to “advance the interests of the Russian Federation.” The criminal complaint alleges Butina and others conspired to “commit an offense against the United States.” The complaint describes Butina as working at the direction of a “Russian Federation official” who is not named, but whose detailed description aligns with Alexander Torshin, a former top Russian Senator and current Russian central banker, who was recently hit with U.S. sanctions. Torshin is another key figure in the Rolling Stone investigation, which describes how the duo spent years gaining the trust of leaders of the National Rifle Association, and used those contacts, and the NRA’s annual meetings, to make overtures to top Republicans, including the Trump campaign. The FBI is investigating whether illicit Russian funding made its way into NRA coffers to help elect Trump. Butina, who has been studying in the United States on an academic visa, was charged on the same day President Trump met with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, where Trump refused to confront Russia on its 2016 election interference. The criminal complaint against Butina lays out the “objects of the conspiracy”: To act in the United States as an agent of a foreign government, specifically the Russian Federation…. To act in the United States as an agent of a foreign government official, specifically an official of the Russian Federation…. To exploit personal connections with U.S. persons having influence in American politics in an effort to advance the interests of the Russian Federation…. ; and To infiltrate organizations active in U.S. politics in an effort to advance the interests of the Russian Federation…. A 17-page FBI affidavit establishing probable cause for the criminal complaint relies on evidence seized from Butina’s laptop and iPhone – as well at Twitter direct messages. It paints a startling picture of collaboration between Butina, the Russian official believed to be Torshin and two unnamed Americans – referred to as U.S. Persons 1 and 2. The document also connects the dots to “POLITICAL PARTY 1” – which appears to be the GOP – and the “GUN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION.” The affidavit reads in part: “The FBI’s investigation has… revealed that BUTINA and the RUSSIAN OFFICIAL took steps to develop relationships with American politicians in order to establish private, or as she called them, ‘back channel’ lines of communication. These lines could be used by the Russian Federation to penetrate the U.S. national decision-making apparatus….” The FBI special agent continues that his investigation “has also revealed that BUTINA and the RUSSIAN OFFICIAL planned to advance Moscow’s long-term strategic objectives in the United States in part by establishing relationships with American political organizations, including the GUN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION…” The agent concludes: “I believe that BUTINA and the RUSSIAN OFFICIAL took these steps in order to infiltrate those groups and advance the interests of the Russian Federation.” www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/maria-butina-first-arrest-nra-russia-scandal-699923/To quote Jafar from Aladin, "Things are beginning to unravel fast now"
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Post by Outsider on Jul 17, 2018 7:30:28 GMT -5
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Post by Outsider on Jul 17, 2018 7:31:54 GMT -5
From a GOP strategist!
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Post by Outsider on Jul 17, 2018 7:34:15 GMT -5
Trump is now repaying Putin for helping him win the presidency The events of the past few days — culminating in President Trump’s meeting today with Russian President Vladimir Putin — have rendered this interpretation inescapable: Trump is currently in the process of repaying Putin for helping to deliver him the presidency. Whatever comes of this meeting — even if Trump does, in fact, gain some concessions from Putin, and even if Putin does not get what he wants out of Trump — that storyline will remain operative. The known facts have now established it beyond any serious doubt, and the only alternative interpretations of that now-established basic bargain that make any sense are actually more nefarious than that one. In Helsinki today, Trump and Putin spoke to reporters before entering their private meeting. Trump predicted that “I think we will end up having an extraordinary relationship,” adding that “getting along with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing.” But as The Post’s write-up puts it: “Trump did not mention Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential campaign as one of the topics to be discussed.” On Friday, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III indicted a dozen Russian military intelligence officials in an extraordinary and wide-ranging set of cyberattacks on Hillary Clinton’s campaign and Democratic National Committee officials, alleging a detailed plot to sabotage the election that established the clearest connection yet to the Russian government. Yet not only did Trump fail to say he’d bring up Russian sabotage of our election with Putin, he also tweeted this: In blaming only previous U.S. leadership and the current Mueller probe for bad relations with Russia — and not Russia’s attack on our democracy, which is particularly galling, now that this attack has been described in great new detail — Trump is not merely spinning in a way that benefits himself. He’s also giving a gift to Putin, by signaling that he will continue to do all he can to delegitimize efforts to establish the full truth about Russian interference, which in turn telegraphs that Russia can continue such efforts in the future (which U.S. intelligence officials have warned will happen in the 2018 elections). In a sense, by doing this, Trump is colluding with such efforts right now. It has been widely pointed out that Putin benefits from today’s meeting simply because it is happening. As the New York Times puts it, the meeting will be a “success” if it takes place “without any major friction,” which would provide “a symbolic end to Western efforts to isolate Russia over its actions against Ukraine in 2014.” On top of this, of course, all the other actions Trump is taking to destabilize the Western international order — the escalating trade wars, the attacks on NATO that are obviously designed to weaken it — also benefit Putin. But the point I want to make here is that, even if you do not view those steps by Trump as a kind of reward to Putin for helping swing the election, since they could be motivated by all sorts of other things, it is unavoidably clear — based on the new information and Trumpian conduct we’ve seen in the past few days — that Trump’s ongoing treatment of Russian electoral interference in particular is essentially a reward for doing just that. Even if Trump does end up taking a tougher line with Russia on international affairs, that point stands, as long as he continues to dismiss the seriousness of the sabotage itself. Alternatively, even if you think Trump should be trying for smoother relations with Russia, he could (and should) pair such an effort with genuine condemnation of Russian interference and a serious effort to ward it off in the future, since, after all, what’s at stake is our democracy. Indeed, as the Lawfare team points out, Mueller’s indictment basically reveals that Putin has been lying to Trump all along about the scale and scope of Russia’s sabotage effort. But Trump is now shrugging at that confirmed lying, and he’s still not taking this act of sabotage at all seriously. Remember, Trump himself called on Russia to hack Clinton’s emails. And according to a tally by ThinkProgress, Trump publicly drew attention to the material leaked by WikiLeaks — which received it from Russia, according to the Mueller indictment — more than 100 times during the campaign. We don’t know how much influence this sabotage had. But as Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg points out, beyond how many votes were directly moved, the DNC was badly disabled by the cyber subterfuge at a critical moment, which had to have had some kind of serious impact. Trump, who himself used the material funneled through WikiLeaks by Russia as a weapon, is in effect now rewarding Russian efforts to supply it, by refusing to treat this sabotage as a crime against our political system. You can, of course, adopt far worse interpretations of what Trump is giving to Putin as part of this basic bargain, and of his motives for doing so. But even if you don’t, this one is now inescapable. * A BIG WIN FOR PUTIN: The New York Times reports on all the ways that Vladimir Putin wins simply by getting President Trump to show up for their meeting. And: Deploying hackers, disinformation campaigns and support for far-right populist forces in Europe, Mr. Putin has long sought to fracture the West and upend the established geopolitical order. But Mr. Trump, who routinely attacks European leaders and has started a trade war with some of America’s closest allies, is now effectively doing the job for him. In addition to this meeting, much of what Trump is doing toward our allies is also “winning” … for Putin. * RUSSIAN MEDIA LOVES TRUMP: The Associated Press reports that the Kremlin-friendly Russian media is widely portraying Trump as unfairly maligned in the United States and is praising his meeting with Putin: Newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda dismissed the U.S. investigation into Trump’s “mythical work for the Kremlin,” and praised Trump for meeting Putin “despite opposition from his own elite and the hysterics of the media.” … Panelists on popular Sunday night talk show “Vecher,” or “Evening,” … described him as hobbled … by special investigator Robert Mueller’s probe of alleged Russian election interference. Sounds remarkably similar to the message coming from our very own state media, with the exception of the “hobbled” part. * RUSSIAN MINISTRY AGREES WITH TRUMP: After Trump blamed bad relations with Russia on previous U.S. leaders and the Mueller probe, and not on Russian behavior or sabotaging of our elections, this happened: No wonder Trump said the meeting with Putin would be the easiest of them all … * ALL THE TIMES TRUMP PRAISED PUTIN: CNN tallies up a whole bunch of examples, including his credulous acceptance of Putin’s denial of electoral sabotage, and his claim that he’ll make a “deal” with the Russian leader. CNN comments: Trump is drawn to strongmen with a tinge — or more than a tinge — of authoritarianism in their leadership style. There’s a part of him that admires Putin’s ability to command total fealty — and not have to deal with an adversarial (a.k.a. independent) media … What’s clear is that Trump isn’t going to emerge from Monday’s summit … with much to say about Putin that’s negative. Indeed, it’s not that hard to imagine Trump emerging with praise for Putin’s relationship with his state media. * REPUBLICANS EDGE AWAY FROM TRUMP: Dave Weigel has a good report on Republican candidates who are carefully distancing themselves from Trump’s agenda, even in the hallowed Midwest: Doubts about the ongoing tariff battle and about the administration’s agenda on health care, spending and immigration have changed the terrain. Rather than back the president and Republicans, the Midwest has begun to flirt with candidates who would keep them in check. … Republican candidates now are … unable to fully share in the president’s popularity with their own party members but tagged with his least popular moves by general election voters. But wait. Didn’t Stephen K. Bannon tell us that Republican candidates should fully embrace Trumpism? Seems they don’t agree with the wisdom of that idea. * HOW DEMOCRATS ARE RUNNING: E.J. Dionne Jr. talks to Democrats running for Congress in New Jersey and finds they are campaigning on the failures of Trump/GOP rule and the public desire for a check on the president. Note this, from Tom Malinowski, who’s running in the 7th District: “We’re now the party of fiscal responsibility in America. We didn’t just add $2 trillion to the national debt for that tax cut that Warren Buffett didn’t want,” he tells me. “We’re the party of law enforcement in America; we don’t vilify the Federal Bureau of Investigation every single day. We’re the party of family values. We don’t … take kids from their parents at the border. We’re the party of patriotism in America that wants to defend this country against our foreign adversaries.” Seems like a good argument. Note that he is not shying away from taking on Trump on immigration. * AND WARREN TESTS WATERS FOR 2020: The Times reports on the aggressive steps Elizabeth Warren is taking toward a 2020 run, while also noting moves by Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Cory Booker: Senior Democrats see their party in a historically volatile state, and they are wary of attempting another Clinton-style coronation. But many Democrats believe the party’s turn left, combined with the rising fury of progressive women and the grass-roots appetite for a political brawler, have created an especially inviting environment for Ms. Warren. Lurking in the background, of course, is Bernie Sanders. Democrats think Warren might be able to capture the energy of the activist base and siphon it away from him. www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/07/16/trump-is-now-repaying-putin-for-helping-him-win-the-presidency/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.3a318ac248e7
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Post by Outsider on Jul 17, 2018 7:34:48 GMT -5
You have to wonder - considering what Trump said publically - what did he say privately?
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newhivemaster
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Post by newhivemaster on Jul 17, 2018 9:11:36 GMT -5
SigDig for Tuesday, 7/17/2018 Good morning, Hive! 14,400-year-old bread
14,400-year-old evidence of bread-making was discovered in northeastern Jordan recently. It was previously thought that, historically speaking, the making of bread followed the development of agriculture. But a new discovery shows that bread actually predates agriculture by about 4,000 years. These ancient bakers are thought to have used “wild einkorn and club-rush tubers to make flatbread-like food products.” Countdown to the introduction of $18 wild einkorn flatbreads on the menus of Brooklyn eateries in 5, 4, 3, 2, …
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Post by doddeb on Jul 17, 2018 9:38:17 GMT -5
Judge orders temporary halt in deportations of parents whose children are in detention. U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw said Monday he's become "exasperated" by the Trump administration's slow work to reunify more than 2,600 children separated from their parents, and he ordered the government to halt all deportations of parents for at least a week. Sabraw scolded the Department of Health and Human Services for taking so long to reunite children in its care with their parents held in separate government facilities. The judge responded to a court filing by Chris Meekins, a senior HHS official who wrote that the judge's order requiring accelerated reunifications was leading to "increased risks to child welfare." www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/07/16/judge-halts-deportations-parents-separated-children/788276002/
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Post by doddeb on Jul 17, 2018 9:53:43 GMT -5
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Post by LA_Randy on Jul 17, 2018 10:12:22 GMT -5
Arrogant Trump is in Putin’s pocket — and he wants everyone to know it If there’s one thing we know about Donald Trump, it’s that he not only loves getting away with wicked behavior, but he also enjoys flaunting it when he does so. As the record shows, Trump has consistently boasted that he’s above the rules and norms governing moral behavior. In the face of numerous indictments full of damning evidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military intelligence broke the law by stealing emails from Democratic officials, and then used WikiLeaks and Republican officials to use the stolen emails for propaganda purposes, most politicians in Trump’s situation would try to claim innocence. Guilty or not, they would be eager to discourage fears that they were selling out the country to a foreign adversary. This article first appeared in Salon. Not Donald Trump, however. The president spent the past few days defiantly rubbing our noses in his undeniable support for Vladimir Putin’s efforts to undermine democratic states and international peacekeeping efforts. Trump used his trip to attack NATO and called the European Union a “foe,” while using Twitter to claim that the allegations of election interference are a “Rigged Witch Hunt” and painting Russia’s government as an innocent victim. He doubled down on this strategy during Monday’s joint press conference with Putin, where the two leaders offered a unified front of obviously false denials of Russia’s crimes against Americans. Whatever Trump is or isn’t guilty of behind the scenes, as Greg Sargent of the Washington Post argued, he “is currently in the process of repaying Putin for helping to deliver him the presidency,” and the collusion is happening right out in public. Trump is parading around his allegiance to Putin, relishing the fact that he can commit what looks quite a bit like treason right in front of people’s faces, all without paying any price for it. This may seem nuts — typically, we expect people to make some sort of effort to conceal their unethical and criminal behavior — but it fits the larger pattern of Trump’s life. He really likes doing bad things and getting away with it, and he especially likes bragging about it. “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything,” Trump famously told Billy Bush on a hot mic in 2005. “Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.” In the same year, Trump told Howard Stern that one of “the funniest” things in his life was that he could go backstage at a Miss USA pageant while “everyone’s getting dressed,” bragging that no other men got to do that, but he could “because I’m the owner of the pageant and therefore I’m inspecting it.” Trump added that he loves how he can “get away with things like that.” “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters,” Trump gloated on the campaign trail. “My whole life I’ve been greedy, greedy, greedy,” Trump exalted at another campaign event. “I’ve grabbed all the money I could get.” During a presidential debate, when Hillary Clinton accused Trump of hiding his history of not paying taxes, he sneered, “That makes me smart.” In March, Trump gleefully recounted his efforts to gaslight Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau about the nature of the trade deficit between the two countries. There are hundreds of examples, no doubt, but Trump has made it clear: He gets off on believing he’s too powerful to be held accountable to the basic moral rules of human behavior, ranging from “don’t sexually assault people” to “don’t lie for the hell of it” to “don’t be a racist scumbag” to, just maybe, “don’t betray your country for personal gain.” For someone who gets a rise out of feeling invincible, not having to face any consequences for flagrantly covering for Vladimir Putin has got to feel incredible. Trump is likely right that his supporters will thrill to it as well. As I have detailed here at Salon and in my book, “Troll Nation,” Trump’s voters delight in “liberal tears” above all else. It’s hard to argue that smiling upon an authoritarian leader of a hostile foreign power who used criminal actions to subvert democracy to hand the White House over to a reality TV star whose main interest is getting rich off taxpayers is not, objectively speaking, an excellent route to extracting the most delicious of liberal tears. Trump himself has framed his Russia love in these terms, calling it “politically correct” — the favorite term of dismissal on the right — to object to the Russians violating international law by invading and annexing Crimea, which was part of another sovereign nation. Trump is really feeling himself — and his power to betray his own country in favor of pleasing Putin — and for good reason. His feeling of invincibility is backed up by a Republican party that will, indeed, reject any real accountability for Trump no matter what he does. Sure, a few Republican politicians have offered mealy-mouthed expressions of disappointment that the president is openly siding with a man accused of subverting American democracy. Is there any doubt that they will turn around and reward his gloating betrayal by supporting his agenda while refusing to take any actions against him? Their party has sold the country out to American billionaires for so long that selling out to Russian oligarchs isn’t really much of a leap, it appears. Trump doesn’t always flaunt his evil behavior — he is smart enough to know to play dumb or innocent when he could really get in trouble — but when he knows full well he’s going to get away with it it, he enjoys a strong bout of public gloating. And he’s going to get away with it as long as Republicans remain in charge, which is why he’s shoving his betrayal of America in our faces. Remember: When you’re a star, they let you do it. www.rawstory.com/2018/07/arrogant-trump-putins-pocket-wants-everyone-know/
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Post by doddeb on Jul 17, 2018 10:13:48 GMT -5
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Post by LA_Randy on Jul 17, 2018 10:28:33 GMT -5
White House: U.S. Can’t Afford Veterans’ Health Care Without Cuts Last year, the Trump administration insisted that its regressive tax cuts were so important, it was worth adding $1.5 trillion to the national debt to ensure their passage. Now, the White House is warning Congress that the United States cannot afford to add $1.6 billion to the deficit to expand health-care options for veterans. In a letter Monday, the Trump administration demanded that lawmakers fund a popular veterans’ health-care program — which allows former troops to spend public funds on private doctors and hospitals — with cuts to other parts of the budget. Democrats, and some top Senate Republicans, prefer to raise the current caps on discretionary spending instead. The case for the latter option is straightforward. Congressional spending falls into two categories: mandatory (funding for programs like Social Security, which increases automatically as more Americans qualify for benefits) and discretionary (spending that Congress must actively renew). When Congress passed its omnibus budget bill back in March, the private veterans’ health-care program was on the mandatory side of the ledger. Thus, although lawmakers knew that federal spending on the program was going to increase, they didn’t have to account for its cost when setting a discretionary budget. But last month, president Trump signed a law that reorganized veterans’ health care, and shifted funding for the private program into the discretionary column. This did not significantly increase the overall cost of domestic spending — but it did lift the price tag on the discretionary budget above previously set caps. Which is to say: It produced a budget shortfall that wasn’t a product of changes in fiscal reality, so much as in accounting practices. Thus, Democrats and Senate Republicans like Alabama’s Richard Shelby have favored just lifting the caps. After all, lawmakers already need to resolve a host of other contentious budgetary issues between now and October, if they are to avoid a shutdown on midterms’ eve. Relitigating funding levels for various domestic programs — which Congress had found consensus on just months ago — is not a fight that most lawmakers want to have. And it’s hard to see why the White House does. The administration’s desire to repent for its sins against fiscal responsibility is understandable enough (even if their gesture is roughly akin to a serial arsonist buying a single brownie from a local fire department’s bake sale). But why they would want to center their performance of deficit hawkery on the issue of veterans’ health care is baffling. Yes, their official position is that the program must be funded with reductions in other appropriations. But the administration has already established that it believes corporate tax cuts are so important, they’re worth enacting at any fiscal cost. Given that context, it shouldn’t be difficult for Democrats to paint the White House’s current hard line on deficits as a tacit admission that it sees caring for America’s retired troops as less important than increasing corporate America’s allowance. nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/07/trump-u-s-cant-afford-veterans-health-care-without-cuts.html
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Post by Outsider on Jul 17, 2018 10:33:40 GMT -5
Arrogant Trump is in Putin’s pocket — and he wants everyone to know it If there’s one thing we know about Donald Trump, it’s that he not only loves getting away with wicked behavior, but he also enjoys flaunting it when he does so. As the record shows, Trump has consistently boasted that he’s above the rules and norms governing moral behavior. In the face of numerous indictments full of damning evidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military intelligence broke the law by stealing emails from Democratic officials, and then used WikiLeaks and Republican officials to use the stolen emails for propaganda purposes, most politicians in Trump’s situation would try to claim innocence. Guilty or not, they would be eager to discourage fears that they were selling out the country to a foreign adversary. This article first appeared in Salon. Not Donald Trump, however. The president spent the past few days defiantly rubbing our noses in his undeniable support for Vladimir Putin’s efforts to undermine democratic states and international peacekeeping efforts. Trump used his trip to attack NATO and called the European Union a “foe,” while using Twitter to claim that the allegations of election interference are a “Rigged Witch Hunt” and painting Russia’s government as an innocent victim. He doubled down on this strategy during Monday’s joint press conference with Putin, where the two leaders offered a unified front of obviously false denials of Russia’s crimes against Americans. Whatever Trump is or isn’t guilty of behind the scenes, as Greg Sargent of the Washington Post argued, he “is currently in the process of repaying Putin for helping to deliver him the presidency,” and the collusion is happening right out in public. Trump is parading around his allegiance to Putin, relishing the fact that he can commit what looks quite a bit like treason right in front of people’s faces, all without paying any price for it. This may seem nuts — typically, we expect people to make some sort of effort to conceal their unethical and criminal behavior — but it fits the larger pattern of Trump’s life. He really likes doing bad things and getting away with it, and he especially likes bragging about it. “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything,” Trump famously told Billy Bush on a hot mic in 2005. “Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.” In the same year, Trump told Howard Stern that one of “the funniest” things in his life was that he could go backstage at a Miss USA pageant while “everyone’s getting dressed,” bragging that no other men got to do that, but he could “because I’m the owner of the pageant and therefore I’m inspecting it.” Trump added that he loves how he can “get away with things like that.” “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters,” Trump gloated on the campaign trail. “My whole life I’ve been greedy, greedy, greedy,” Trump exalted at another campaign event. “I’ve grabbed all the money I could get.” During a presidential debate, when Hillary Clinton accused Trump of hiding his history of not paying taxes, he sneered, “That makes me smart.” In March, Trump gleefully recounted his efforts to gaslight Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau about the nature of the trade deficit between the two countries. There are hundreds of examples, no doubt, but Trump has made it clear: He gets off on believing he’s too powerful to be held accountable to the basic moral rules of human behavior, ranging from “don’t sexually assault people” to “don’t lie for the hell of it” to “don’t be a racist scumbag” to, just maybe, “don’t betray your country for personal gain.” For someone who gets a rise out of feeling invincible, not having to face any consequences for flagrantly covering for Vladimir Putin has got to feel incredible. Trump is likely right that his supporters will thrill to it as well. As I have detailed here at Salon and in my book, “Troll Nation,” Trump’s voters delight in “liberal tears” above all else. It’s hard to argue that smiling upon an authoritarian leader of a hostile foreign power who used criminal actions to subvert democracy to hand the White House over to a reality TV star whose main interest is getting rich off taxpayers is not, objectively speaking, an excellent route to extracting the most delicious of liberal tears. Trump himself has framed his Russia love in these terms, calling it “politically correct” — the favorite term of dismissal on the right — to object to the Russians violating international law by invading and annexing Crimea, which was part of another sovereign nation. Trump is really feeling himself — and his power to betray his own country in favor of pleasing Putin — and for good reason. His feeling of invincibility is backed up by a Republican party that will, indeed, reject any real accountability for Trump no matter what he does. Sure, a few Republican politicians have offered mealy-mouthed expressions of disappointment that the president is openly siding with a man accused of subverting American democracy. Is there any doubt that they will turn around and reward his gloating betrayal by supporting his agenda while refusing to take any actions against him? Their party has sold the country out to American billionaires for so long that selling out to Russian oligarchs isn’t really much of a leap, it appears. Trump doesn’t always flaunt his evil behavior — he is smart enough to know to play dumb or innocent when he could really get in trouble — but when he knows full well he’s going to get away with it it, he enjoys a strong bout of public gloating. And he’s going to get away with it as long as Republicans remain in charge, which is why he’s shoving his betrayal of America in our faces. Remember: When you’re a star, they let you do it. www.rawstory.com/2018/07/arrogant-trump-putins-pocket-wants-everyone-know/Voting maters. November matters. More and more each day.
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Post by foggyisback on Jul 17, 2018 10:34:50 GMT -5
You have to wonder - considering what Trump said publically - what did he say privately? #TheManslurianCandidate
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Post by Outsider on Jul 17, 2018 10:37:01 GMT -5
America’s day of shame: Donald Trump acts as Putin’s puppet. Will Republicans do anything? Political and media class erupts at President Trump after spectacle of shame in Helsinki. But will anything change? I wrote on Monday, in advance of the big summit in Helsinki, that this was going to be the the big finale of Donald Trump's Chaos Tour, with pyrotechnics and explosions and both he and Vladimir Putin smashing up their guitars and setting them on fire. Was it ever. The event may have ended the most astonishing political press conference ever witnessed. I think everyone expected it to be strange. But this was downright surreal. After meeting privately for two hours, the two men faced the press and Trump essentially pledged his fealty to Vladimir Putin. He blamed America for the bad relationship with Russia, relived the glory of his election, attacked Hillary Clinton and Peter Strzok, babbled incoherently about "servers" and Pakistanis, and once again questioned whether Russia was truly involved in election hacking. He was thrilled that Putin had offered an absurd reciprocal arrangement whereby special counsel Robert Mueller's team could come to Moscow and interview Russian spies in exchange for Russian intelligence agents being read in to American espionage capabilities. When asked if he would denounce Putin over the 2016 election interference and warn him never to do it again, Trump ranted unintelligibly about why nobody can find "the server." Then this popped out: My people came to me, Dan Coats [the director of national intelligence] came to me and some others, they said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin; he just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be. It's hard to believe an American president would say such a thing, standing next to the man his entire government knows ordered the interference in the election and say that, but he did. He said this too: Putin, meanwhile, smiled like a Cheshire cat as he denied the charges. When asked if he had the "Kompromat" on Trump mentioned in the Steele dossier, the Russian leader didn't exactly deny it: Top Stories Teen protagonists everyone can relate to When President Trump was at Moscow back then, I didn’t even know that he was in Moscow. I treat President Trump with utmost respect, but back then when he was a private individual, a businessman, nobody informed me that he was in Moscow. He could have come right out and admitted that he'd done it, but it wouldn't have been nearly as convincing. Trump grinned and nodded robotically at Putin's every word, looking for all the world like ... a puppet. The reaction from the press and the political establishment has been explosive. Even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was compelled to speak out after thinking about it for a few hours: The Russians are not our friends. I’ve said that repeatedly, I say it again today. And I have complete confidence in our intelligence community and the findings that they have announced. Democrats all denounced the president's conduct, needless to say. Many came right out and suggested that Putin must have something on Trump. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., demanded that the national security team that accompanies Trump to Helsinki testify before Congress immediately. Both Trump and Putin gave interviews to Fox News after the summit. Trump spoke to his most devoted sycophant: Putin spoke with the much more formidable Chris Wallace. This will give you a flavor of how it went: Wallace tried to give Putin a copy of the recent indictments against the 12 Russian intelligence officers. Putin wouldn't take it. I'm sure Trump was terribly embarrassed that his good friend was so ill-treated, and had a word with Hannity about it later. It's likely that the Republican establishment will soon fall back into its comfortable posture: Trump is just being Trump, and those tax cuts make it all worthwhile. But there's a slim possibility that this event will shift the dynamic simply because nobody's ever seen any president behave like this before. Certainly there are things they could do. As James Fallows writes in the Atlantic: Those who could do something are the 51 Republican senators and 236 Republican representatives who have the power to hold hearings, issue subpoenas, pass resolutions of censure, guarantee the integrity of Robert Mueller’s investigation, condemn the past Russian election interference, shore up protections against the next assault, and in general defend their country rather than the damaged and defective man who is now its president. Trump just spent days treating the leaders of NATO countries as if they're his personal servants. He couldn't be bothered to learn the protocol to behave properly around the 92-year-old queen of England. He bullies everyone in his own party and the opposition. He calls the press "the enemy of the people." But with Vladimir Putin he turns into a bashful schoolboy, fawning and obeisant. Chuck Schumer said out loud what most people who watched that spectacle were thinking: A single, ominous question now hangs over the White House: What could possibly cause President Trump to put the interests of Russia over those of the United States? Millions of Americans will continue to wonder. The only possible explanation for this dangerous behavior is the possibility that President Putin holds damaging information over President Trump. In fact, in the Hannity interview, Trump sounded downright frightened: I thought President Putin was very, very strong. I think we're doing really well with Russia as of today. I thought we were doing horribly before today. I mean, horribly, dangerously. I think it was great today, but I think it was really bad five hours ago. I think we really had a potential problem. It's entirely possible that Trump is trying to pass this off as another example of him "solving" a crisis that doesn't exist. But when you think about it, it sounds for all the world as if Putin threatened Trump in that two-hour private meeting, and then Trump did exactly what he was told to do in that press conference. Whatever Putin has on him, it's got him scared to death. www.salon.com/2018/07/17/americas-day-of-shame-donald-trump-serves-as-putins-puppet-will-republicans-do-anything/
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Post by LA_Randy on Jul 17, 2018 10:40:02 GMT -5
Donald Trump is not delusional White House aides want you to believe the president stands with Putin because he doesn’t get what’s going on. Top aides at the White House are peddling a remarkable excuse for President Donald Trump’s embarrassing performance at a press conference in Helsinki on Monday, where he sided with Russian President Vladimir Putin over American intelligence officials on the question of whether Russia interfered in the 2016 election. The president, they tell Axios’s Jonathan Swan, is delusional: A number of people who’ve discussed election meddling with Trump, including current senior administration officials, say his brain can’t process that collusion and cyberattacks are two different things, Swan emails.
Trump seems constitutionally incapable of taking anything Mueller finds seriously.
He views the entire exercise as a “witch hunt” cooked up by Democrats and Deep State conspirators to underline his election win.
Ego prevents him acknowledging the possibility that any external action could have interfered with his glorious victory.
The handful of White House staff Swan has privately communicated with since today’s press conference are not proud of the man they work for. But he doesn’t expect any to resign.Okay. Here’s the thing: If Trump’s aides actually believed this, wouldn’t they do something about it? The fact that they haven’t — aside from speaking anonymously to a reporter about it — suggests they don’t actually believe it. Plus, Trump’s own public statements and decisions, though often bizarre or rude or offensive, show he isn’t confused about the basic facts of the situation. For example, despite what aides are selling, we know Trump knows what a “cyberattack” is. He’s proven he gets that it is not the same as “collusion.” On a debate stage during the campaign, he disputed Hillary Clinton pinning the blame on Russia, invoking a stereotype about hackers (obese and antisocial) and raising the possibility that it was the Chinese: She’s saying Russia, Russia, Russia, but I don’t — maybe it was. I mean, it could be Russia, but it could also be China. It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, okay? He even once called on Russia to find Clinton’s “missing” emails. Coincidentally, the Democratic National Committee was hacked by Russians two days later.When Trump talks about “collusion,” a word that also starts with a C, he seems to nonetheless be able to differentiate it from “cyberattack.” He understands that collusion is about whether or not his campaign was involved in Russian operations, including those cyberattacks. For example, talking about special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe earlier on Monday, Trump said: “There was no collusion at all. Everybody knows it. People are being brought out to the fore. So far as I know, virtually, none of it related to the campaign. They will have to try really hard to find something that did relate to the campaign.” Then there’s the question of Mueller himself. Aides tell Axios that the president is “constitutionally incapable of taking anything Mueller finds seriously.” But Trump doesn’t act like a man who doesn’t take the investigation seriously. Even before Mueller came onto the scene, Trump went so far as to fire his FBI director over Russia (which set up Mueller’s entrance). Then he considered firing Jeff Sessions, his attorney general, because Sessions recused himself from all things Russia. The White House is claiming — anonymously, of course — that the root of all this is Trump’s deeply held, paranoid belief that this is “a ‘witch hunt’ cooked up by Democrats and Deep State conspirators to undermine his election win.” Trump says this all the time. Even two of his final words at the press conference with Putin on Monday were “witch” and “hunt.” But his actions say something different. Trump personally dictated the cover-up statement about the Trump Tower meeting, the one held during the campaign by his campaign manager Paul Manafort, his son Don Jr., his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and several Russians. He knew the truth was the problem. Not the “Deep State.” If the best defense that the aides closest to Trump can come up with for his open support for Putin is that he’s delusional, they must either be delusional themselves or believe that we are delusional enough to buy it. www.vox.com/2018/7/16/17578700/trump-putin-helsinki-meeting-white-house-statements
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Post by Outsider on Jul 17, 2018 10:40:08 GMT -5
Russia-NRA Arrest: This Is as Close as It Gets to Collusion For all the indictments, arrests, and guilty pleas in the far-flung investigation into Russian influence, none has come close to alleging collusion. Until Maria Butina was nabbed. It’s the first time the Justice Department has explicitly claimed that a Russian spy working to influence the 2016 campaign had deliberate assistance with her efforts from a U.S. citizen. On Monday, the DOJ arrested and charged a Russian national who courted the NRA and the Republican Party with secretly working as a foreign agent. The criminal complaint already has geopolitical implications, with the Russian Embassy calling for access to the alleged spy. And its implications for domestic politics also could be tectonic: The case is as close as it gets to collusion. According to the Justice Department, at least one American helped her with her influence operation. In a sworn affidavit, FBI agent Kevin Helson said Maria Butina worked to set up “back channel” communications between Americans and the Kremlin. Her effort was underway by March 2015—months before Donald Trump entered the presidential campaign, according to the affidavit. And it kicked into high gear during the election season. “These lines could be used by the Russian Federation to penetrate the U.S. national decision-making apparatus to advance the agenda of the Russian Federation,” Agent Helson wrote. Helson said he believed Butina moved to infiltrate an American gun rights organization as part of her pro-Kremlin operations. The affidavit does not name the gun rights organization but says it is a major donor to congressional campaigns. Butina has spent years aggressively courting the leadership of the NRA, which matches the description in the affidavit. Butina’s apparent supervisor, former Russian senator Alexander Torshin, also spent years building relationships in the NRA. In 2015, he was pictured at a meeting in Moscow with a high-level delegation from the NRA and sanctioned Putin deputy Dmitry Rogozin. Rogozin, an ultra-nationalist hardliner, believes Russia should retake Alaska. Torshin faces money-laundering allegations from Spanish authorities. Facebook Maria Butina with Alexander Torshin. Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor, said Butina’s legal problems should come as a sobering moment for the NRA. “The evidence set forth in the affidavit suggests the NRA was being used by the Russian government as a conduit to the Republican Party and political leaders in the U.S.,” he said. “So every person who was in contact with this woman is a potential witness.” “She appeared to have access to NRA leadership,” he added, “so if I represented the NRA, this would be a very alarming development.” Butina has long billed herself as a top advocate for gun rights in Russia. A lifetime NRA member, she attended the NRA’s 2014 yearly meeting as a special guest of the organization’s president. The 2015 NRA delegation to Moscow met with a Russian gun rights group Butina claims to have started, called the Right to Bear Arms. Butina boasted about the meeting on her Facebook page. David Clarke, a right-wing Wisconsin firebrand and former sheriff who once claimed Black Lives Matter would team up with ISIS to destroy America, was part of the delegation. Butina’s group paid $6,000 for his travel and accommodations. “YOU HAVE ALREADY MET ALL OF THE AMERICANS necessary to introduce you to EVERYONE on that list.” — Unnamed ‘U.S. Person 1’ Butina’s influence operation was underway in March 2015, according to the affidavit, when she emailed an American with a proposal called “Project Discretion ‘Diplomacy.’” She predicted that an unnamed major political party—all but certainly the GOP—would ascend to power in 2016. The American responded with advice on how to cultivate relationships in that party, as well as a list of Americans she should get to know. “YOU HAVE ALREADY MET ALL OF THE AMERICANS necessary to introduce you to EVERYONE on that list,” he wrote. Butina, who moved to Washington in 2016, has claimed multiple times to have been a conduit between the Trump campaign and Russia, as The Daily Beast reported last year. “She said so in my class. And she said so several times in the last semester,” American University professor Svetlana Savranskaya—who taught Butina—told The Daily Beast at the time. A person who spoke with Butina told The Daily Beast she said she had several meetings with Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican known for his friendliness to the Kremlin. Rohrabacher’s spokesperson also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Butina’s efforts to insinuate herself into the upper circles of the American conservative movement met with more than modest success. Pictures show her hobnobbing with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, NRA head Wayne LaPierre, and former NRA head David Keene. She even made contact with then-candidate Trump. On July 11, 2015, she attended a Las Vegas rally for his campaign and asked him if he would look to thaw relations between Russia and the U.S. if elected. “I know Putin, and I’ll tell you what, we’ll get along with Putin,” Trump replied. “I would get along very nicely with Putin, I mean, where we have the strength. I don’t think you’d need the sanctions. I think we would get along very, very well.” The affidavit says Butina kept a Russian official updated on her activities in the U.S. The official, according to the affidavit, is a former member of the Russian parliament who went on to become “a top official at the Russian Central Bank.” That likely describes Alexander Torshin, a former member of the Russian parliament who subsequently became deputy head of its Central Bank. Torshin has spent years building relationships with people in the upper echelons of the NRA, as NPR has reported. He and Butina are known to be close. The affidavit also describes communications Butina had with an American, referred to only as U.S. Person 1, about an unnamed major American political party. That party is known for its historical hostility to Russia and closeness to gun rights groups—undoubtedly the GOP. Butina had help from at least one American in her effort to build back channels between top Republican Party insiders and the Kremlin. On Oct. 4, 2016, according to the affidavit, U.S. Person 1 wrote an email copping to his role in Butina’s efforts. “Unrelated to specific presidential campaigns, I’ve been involved in securing a VERY private line of communication between the Kremlin and key POLITICAL PARTY 1 leaders through, of all conduits, the [GUN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION],” he wrote. U.S. Person 1 appears to be Paul Erickson, a longtime Republican insider who claimed to advise the Trump transition team. Erickson sherpaed Butina through conservative circles, connecting her with operatives and advising her on outreach, as The Daily Beast has reported. The two even wore a couple’s costume to a birthday party she held: She as Russian Empress Alexandra and he as Rasputin. “It appears to be evidence that an American was working with a Russian to help establish illicit communications in the U.S... This strikes me like it would fit a definition of what collusion is.” — Renato Mariotti, former federal prosecutor U.S. Person 1 is the co-star of the affidavit, quoted at length giving her detailed instructions on how to leverage her already impressive network to connect with as many influential conservatives as possible. And he appeared to know that she had deep-pocketed supporters back in Russia. “All that is needed is for your friends to provide you with the financial resources to spend the time in America to TAKE ALL OF THESE MEETINGS,” he wrote in March 2015. “I and your friends in America can’t make it any easier for you than that.” After reading the affidavit, Mariotti, the former federal prosecutor, said, “It appears to be evidence that an American was working with a Russian to help establish illicit communications in the U.S.” “This strikes me like it would fit a definition of what collusion is,” he added. Butina also targeted the National Prayer Breakfast as part of her effort to shore up relations between Russia and the U.S. She corresponded extensively with the event’s organizers and helped coordinate the attendance of the Russian official supervising her efforts (presumably Torshin). Butina was arrested on July 15, according to a Justice Department press release. The Russian Embassy in the U.S. demanded access to Butina in a tweet. “Consular Section of the Russian Embassy in Washington, DC clarifies the circumstances of Maria Butina’s detention and her whereabouts,” it wrote. “We are in contact with the US authorities and demand from them consular access to the Russian citizen in order to protect her legitimate rights.” www.thedailybeast.com/russia-nra-arrest-this-is-as-close-as-it-gets-to-collusion?ref=home
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Post by Outsider on Jul 17, 2018 10:42:00 GMT -5
It’s Official: The Brexit Campaign Cheated Its Way to Victory Britain’s election watchdog has fined Boris Johnson’s Vote Leave group and reported it to the police—but will it make any difference? The official campaign that campaigned for people in Britain to vote to leave the European Union broke the law, according to the country’s election watchdog, which has now referred the matter to police. With Theresa May’s government teetering on the brink of collapse as the pro- and anti-EU factions within her party go to war, the announcement from the Electoral Commission that the campaign group fronted by Boris Johnson cheated is bringing Brexit tensions to boiling point, with some lawmakers urging a re-run of the vote. The group—known as Vote Leave—was chosen as the official campaign group for the June 2016 referendum. The Electoral Commission says it funneled money into a sister campaign to get around spending limits, meaning that it exceeded the £7 million ($9.2 million) maximum by £500,000 ($660,000) Vote Leave has been fined £61,000 ($80,000) while Darren Grimes, the founder of sister campaign group BeLeave, was fined £20,000 ($26,000). Grimes and Vote Leave official David Halsall have both been reported to police. The investigation from the Electoral Commission found that BeLeave spent more than £675,000 with controversial data firm Aggregate IQ under a common plan with Vote Leave—spending that should have been declared by Vote Leave, but was left out of its spending returns. Aggregate IQ, which received about £2.7 million from Vote Leave during the campaign, has since been suspended from Facebook over its reported links with defunct data firm Cambridge Analytica. The Electoral Commission also criticized Vote Leave for failing to cooperate with its investigation, with director Bob Posner saying: “Vote Leave has resisted our investigation from the start, including contesting our right as the statutory regulator to open the investigation. www.thedailybeast.com/its-official-the-brexit-campaign-cheated-its-way-to-victory?ref=home
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Post by Outsider on Jul 17, 2018 10:43:34 GMT -5
The Republican Party Is Now the Blame America Party Helsinki marks the end of the party of Ronald Reagan and Jeane Kirkpatrick. Conservatives who were celebrating Kavanaugh last week: How do you like Trump now? At some point in the last week or so, “Make America Great Again” became “Blame America First.” What we saw on Monday from Helsinki is why conservatives (like me) can’t back Trump—even with two Supreme Court picks. So much of what constitutes Trumpism directly contradicts everything that Reagan conservatives came to believe. Drawing a moral equivalence between Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the United States of America is an obvious, if disgusting, example. Trump lit the match via Twitter on Monday morning, even before that disgraceful press conference. “Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!” Trump tweeted in advance of his summit with Russian “President” Vladimir Putin. “I hold both countries responsible. I think that the United States has been foolish. We’ve all been foolish,” Trump added, regarding the tense relationship between the United States and Russia. “We have both made mistakes,” he continued—before stressing that there was “no collusion” between his presidential campaign and Russia. Then, at the press conference, asked about Russian meddling in the 2016 election, Trump responded: “I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.” “Trump’s foreign policy worldview eschews Reagan’s moral clarity—and embraces the “Blame America First” mantra of The Gipper’s liberal critics.” There were also signs of strongman envy. “What happened to Hillary Clinton’s emails, 30,000 emails... just gone,” Trump said, adding: “In Russia they would not be gone so easily.” Trump’s comments are often cryptic, but this was reminiscent of Trump’s chilling comments about North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un: “He speaks and his people sit up at attention,” Trump said. “I want my people to do the same.” (My people? I’m not his person, he’s MY president!) Aside from the fact that he said this in Helsinki, standing next to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a joint news conference, Trump’s decision to put Putin on the same plane as Americans is not terribly surprising—nor is his refusal to admit that Putin’s Russia is still an evil empire, even if it is much less powerful than it was a few decades ago. He has long downplayed the murderous sins of Vladimir Putin, telling then-Fox News host Bill O’Reilly in 2017, “There are a lot of killers. We have a lot of killers… Well, you think our country is so innocent?” The irony, of course, is that this kind of talk flies in the face of everything conservatives used to believe. In his address to Protestant church leaders in March 1983, President Reagan warned his audience not to treat the arms race ''as a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong, good and evil," adding: “I urge you to beware the temptation of pride - the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire.'' One year later, Jeane Kirkpatrick (Reagan’s ambassador to the United Nations) delivered a speech at the 1984 Republican National Convention. In hindsight, it reads like an attack on Donald Trump’s current foreign policy: “When the Soviet Union walked out of arms control negotiations, and refused even to discuss the issues, the San Francisco Democrats didn't blame Soviet intransigence. They blamed the United States. But then, they always blame America first,” she said. (Note: By calling them “San Francisco Democrats,” Kirkpatrick was both jabbing at the progressives who had taken over her Democratic Party and noting that the 1984 Democratic National Convention had been held there.) “The American people know that it’s dangerous to blame ourselves for terrible problems that we did not cause,” Kirkpatrick continued. “They understand just as the distinguished French writer, Jean Francois Revel, understands the dangers of endless self-criticism and self-denigration. He wrote: ‘Clearly, a civilization that feels guilty for everything it is and does will lack the energy and conviction to defend itself.’" www.thedailybeast.com/the-republican-party-is-now-the-blame-america-party?ref=home
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Post by doddeb on Jul 17, 2018 10:44:12 GMT -5
Trump staff prepped him before the summit, and then he blew them off in the press conference. Ahead of the meeting, staffers provided Trump with some 100 pages of briefing materials aimed at laying out a tough posture toward Putin, but the president ignored most of it, according to one person familiar with the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose internal deliberations. Trump’s remarks were “very much counter to the plan,” the person said. “Everyone around Trump” was urging him to take a firm stance with Putin, according to a second person familiar with the preparations. Before Monday’s meeting, the second person said, advisers covered matters from Russia’s annexation of Crimea to its interference in the U.S. elections, but Trump “made a game-time decision” to handle the summit his way. “I think that the United States has been foolish,” Trump said at one point, referring to tensions with Russia. “I think we’ve all been foolish. We should’ve had this dialogue a long time ago; a long time, frankly, before I got to office.” A senior White House official disputed the idea that the president acted unilaterally, and said he had numerous sessions with senior administration officials preparing for the summit in addition to briefing materials. This account of the days leading up to Trump’s Helsinki summit is based on interviews with more than a half-dozen White House officials, advisers and diplomats, most of whom requested anonymity to reveal internal discussions. Signs that things might not go according to plan were evident during the two days Trump spent holed up at his luxury seaside golf resort in Turnberry, Scotland. The president spent much of the weekend “growling,” in the words of one White House official, over the Justice Department’s indictment Friday of 12 Russian intelligence officials for interfering in the 2016 election. He fretted that the release of the indictments just before the meeting could hurt him politically, the official said. But a senior White House official said Trump had been in favor of announcing the indictments before the trip so he could raise the issue privately with Putin. Trump also made it clear that he was more excited to sit down with the Russian president than he had been to visit with NATO allies earlier in the week in Brussels. “He loved the summit with Kim Jong Un,” the White House official said, referring to the North Korean leader with whom Trump met last month in Singapore. “He thinks he can sit down eye to eye with these guys, flatter them and make a deal.” In advance of the Putin meeting, White House officials repeatedly told European allies “not to worry,” according to diplomats familiar with the discussions. No deals would be made between Putin and Trump, they said, and no secret promises would be offered that could threaten the balance of power on the continent. They also said the summit would have a declaration text that was short and generic. But the officials could not provide similar assurances about the summit’s live news conference, a setting where the president routinely defies the carefully laid plans of his White House team. One European official acknowledged the difficulty of relying on the assurances of Trump’s aides, saying, “These people don’t control the reality.” Putin almost seemed unable to hide his delight as Trump, standing just to his right, excoriated the FBI, Hillary Clinton and Democrats, among others, and said he held “both” Russia and the United States responsible for the declining relations between the two countries. Trump had grown frustrated that his own government had been so negative about meeting with Putin and wanted a one-on-one meeting so it would not leak, aides said. One senior White House official described Trump’s public remarks as striking a deliberately “contrarian” tone. www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/politics/very-much-counter-to-the-plan-trump-defies-advisers-in-embrace-of-putin/2018/07/16/b2176bfe-8921-11e8-a345-a1bf7847b375_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.3ed4bfb67e6b&__twitter_impression=true
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