Monday, February 19th, 2018
Stephan: The New Yorker has figured it out, but most of media doesn't seem to yet understand that Trump is humiliating the United States in Russia and the rest of the world.
From the Russia point of view there is no downside arising from it being said they influenced our 2016 elections, and I don't understand why that seems such a hard concept to grasp.
The Russian goal was not just to get Trump elected, because they had something on him and could exert a measure of control -- in my opinion some kind of porno video given his known habit patterns plus, I think, his taxes would reveal the Russians hold enormous Trump debt.
They also wanted to demonstrate to the world of democratic nations that they had the power to screw us over by using our own social media. So while Trump is at risk from the Mueller scrutiny, the Russians just look more powerful no matter how that comes out.
In my opinion they had already figured out that the billionaires who owned social media were as naive as children and greedy enough not to look too hard. So, once again Putin wins.
Vladimir Putin
Credit: Sputnik International
“They are laughing their asses off in Moscow.” And thus President Trump may have uttered his most accurate analysis yet of Russia’s attempts to influence the 2016 Presidential election. With Robert Mueller’s investigation advancing—The special counsel indicted thirteen Russians, on Friday—and H. R. McMaster, Trump’s own national-security adviser, telling a crowd of international dignitaries that the evidence against Russia was “incontrovertible,” Trump was apparently forced to find a new line of argumentation.
It wasn’t so long ago—last November—that, after having talked with Putin privately during a summit in Vietnam, Trump declared that he was ready to believe the Russian President’s denials. “Every time he sees me, he says, ‘I didn’t do that,’ and I really believe that, when he tells me that, he means it,” he said. But a growing and increasingly undeniable body of evidence suggests that he did, and it has forced Trump to change his tack: no matter what happened, Trump seems to be arguing, let’s not talk about it because it makes America look […]
I agree with your observations and would add that money laundering is the big story behind all of it. Trumpet has historically played fast and loose with the law getting caught sometimes but always wiggling free.
The Russian interference reflects a pattern executed in other places. Trumpet win or lose the discord is a win for Russia. On the other hand the US has interfered in elections world-wide since ww2 to greater depth and effect than what the Russians are accused of. This includes Russia itself in the 90’s. Maybe turn about is fair play?
So tiresome.
I agree with Will. The joke is certainly on us. We are the laughing stock of the world after voting in the “clown in charge” named Trump.