I greatly respect Thomas Friedman, he is well traveled smart and has a great deal of common sense. So I had to stop and listen when he makes a point to question Trump's inaction regarding the confirmed Russian election meddling. And worse yet, Trump is dragging his feet on implementing Russian sanctions that Congress passed overwhelmingly last Summer. Finally, he certainly does not seem to be working hard to prevent the Russians from doing it again in 2018...
With all this in mind, why do you think Trump is protecting Russia and not working to thwart their efforts?
CNN Money Friedman Code Red
MinnPost Is Trump a Traitor?
VOX Trump's New Blame Obama Gambit
The Hill Trump Delays Implementing Russian Sanctions
Daily Beast Trump Delays Sanctions
With all this in mind, why do you think Trump is protecting Russia and not working to thwart their efforts?
- It is hard for me to believe they can blackmail him with dirty pictures, I mean he already admitted to grabbing the pussies of women without their permission. And Lord knows he has enough women accusing him of that and/or affairs.
- My guess they either hold his "money" or "popularity" in their hands somehow. I mean that seems to be what he values most.
- Other?
CNN Money Friedman Code Red
MinnPost Is Trump a Traitor?
VOX Trump's New Blame Obama Gambit
The Hill Trump Delays Implementing Russian Sanctions
Daily Beast Trump Delays Sanctions
I read the other day a charge from a Republican commentator that Democrats have been accusing Trump of collusion. Have we been doing that a lot? While I am sure you could sift through the media and find some marginal Democrat who is saying that, the fact is, if you search hard enough you can always find some Democrat or some Republican saying something extreme which embarrasses the party generally. Fox News is a master at that, at least where Democrats are concerned.
ReplyDeleteDo we think Trump "colluded" with Russia? I don't think he did so in so many words. But I do suspect, at least, that Russians have an undue degree of influence over Trump. I do think that because of his business dealings, Trump is vulnerable to blackmail attempts, although Trump's shamelessness makes him peculiarly invulnerable to blackmail. Those are things I think, along with millions of other Americans, I am sure. But do we say them that much in public. My own sense, and others may differ of course, is that we don't, that this is another case of Trump and his supporters hearing what we are thinking to a much greater extent than they are hearing what we are saying.
--Hiram
I do believe that evidence could become public showing Trump being blackmailed by Russia, and it would have little difference at all to his supporters. I am long past the notion that Trump could be hurt by scandal.
ReplyDeleteI watched the Ken Burns documentary on Huey Long the other day. It was made in the 1980's, I believe and it's available for no extra charge on the Amazon Prime streaming tv series. Huey's story reminded me a lot of Trump's, and one thing they shared was their invulnerably to ordinary forms of scandal.
--Hiram
One would think though that even the "Trump True Believers" who were conditioned to distrust the Russians during the cold war would need to become concerned at some point that their President keeps avoiding holding the Russians accountable per the demand from Congress and the US citizens.
ReplyDeleteI mean he has now blamed the FBI, Obama and anyone else he can think of for past inaction... Even as he panders to the desires of his Russian compatriots.
Whatever Trump Is Hiding Is Hurting All of Us Now
ReplyDeleteSome of us have been pointing out for years how corrupt, immoral, and incompetent Trump is and what a huge mistake voting for him was.
I have mixed feelings about him in most areas, but his failure to act regarding Russia’s cyberwarfare is definitely BAD...
ReplyDeleteSo many of Trump’s voters are single issue and the issue isn’t Russia. I believe there is nothing, that we could learn about Russia and Trump that would dissuade them from supporting their guy.
ReplyDelete—Hiram
That is what I find so disturbing... The Far Right Anti-Commie Pro-Reagan crowd seems able to accept Trump's inaction and Pandering to Putin just to get:
ReplyDelete- some tax cuts
- reduction in regs
- etc
President Reagan is likely looking down with some severe disapproval.
VOX: Conservatives Fall for Russian Trolls More Often
ReplyDeleteTrump's claim of not colluding is interesting. After all, the whole point of not colluding is to not leave evidence. Consider a classic recent case of not colluding. A porn star who indicated a willingness to spill certain embarrassing beans was paid off by attorney associated with Trump, out of his own money. Note the care with which evidence was not created. No conversations with Trump, certainly no paper trail, and if there were any traces of such things, it would be protected by attorney client privilege. Trump might not even have known about it. The attorney simply knew what to do without any sort of necessity of being told. A perfect instance of not collusion, of the kind that Trump has benefited from and counted on all his life.
ReplyDelete--Hiram