Monday, July 16, 2018

Trump Putin's Unhealthy Bromance

From Sean... And I agree with him that something is truly wrong with Trump when it comes to Russia...
"I love how we just glided past the fact that Friday's indictments added a ton of useful data points regarding potential Trump collusion with the Russians.
 
The timing on the actions taken by the Russians is remarkable. Three of the main events chronicled in the indictment line up with these three events:
  • Paul Manafort taking over the reins of the Trump campaign in March-April
  • The Don Jr. Trump Tower meeting in June
  • Trump's July call for Russia to locate Hillary's so-called "missing e-mails".
Good Lord, just watch that Trump-Putin press conference. Something is seriously amiss.  Putin couldn't even give a denial when asked if the Russians had compromising material on Trump. Trump couldn't even muster up any sort of condemnation for anything Russia had done. Not Crimea. Not shooting down the Malaysian plane. Not election interference. Not bombing Syrian civilians. Not killing people in Britain with nerve agents. Not even a general complaint about Russian civil rights abuses. "
WAPO Coverage
The Hill Coverage
Daily News Coverage
CNN Brennan Response
Reuters Graham Response
CNN Trumps Worst Tweet
Fox News Blames US

I have to wonder what Putin has on our lead Chimpanzee or if Trump is truly reacting to Putin "alpha male" signals...  May be Trump will stand trail for treason rather than collusion?

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have to wonder what Putin has on our lead Chimpanzee or if Trump is truly reacting to Putin "alpha male" signals...

I have been wondering what Putin could have on Trump that's worse than we already know. How can you defame someone with no moral character?

The real problem that Trump faces, and which Putin may have information on, is corruption in his personal dealings. What is being claimed is that Trump's actions don't make sense in business terms, so in what set of circumstances do they make sense? Like all real estate guys, Trump is vulnerable to cash flow problems. he owes a lot of money. It's why he likes to stiff creditors, and why he makes minimal charitable contributions. Yet he expends huge amounts of cash on golf courses, Trump Turnberry being one. Golf courses are a declining business. They just don't suit our modern lifestyle. Yet Trump pursues them with abandon, losing huge amounts of money in the process. Why is that?

--Hiram

Sean said...

There's plenty of circumstantial evidence that would indicate that a solid portion of the Trump business empire has been used for money laundering. There's the cash purchases made by Trump, the cash sales made by Trump, the incredible complexity of the Trump Organization's legal structure (it owns 5 aircraft, ownership of which is distributed across 15 legal entities, for instance), the self-dealing with his foundation, on and on and on and on...

Sean said...

I would also argue at this point, calling it a "bromance" is far too flippant. At its most innocent, the President of the United States publicly refuses to confront a country who has meddled with our elections, invaded one of its neighbors, shot down a commercial airliner, etc. He stood next to the leader of this country and attacked our intelligence and law enforcement services, essentially saying he trusted the word of that leader over his own people. There's a not-zero chance here that we have a President who is acting as an actor on behalf of another country, something which would have been unthinkable previously.

John said...

Wired: Laundering

John said...

It is probably telling when even FOX News posts coverage...

John said...

CNN More Reactions

Laurie said...

Vox, Ezra KLein: Trump and Putin: what we know is damning

Sean said...

If only somebody had warned us.

John said...

I have to wonder though...

If the Trump Org was laundering money... Wouldn't the IRS have raised flags during his many audits?

Sean said...

That's where the legal complexity comes in. If you're moving money through various shell organizations, by the time it hits the Trump returns, it can appear clean.

Laurie said...

Trump, Treasonous Traitor

Laurie said...

This Is the Moment of Truth for Republicans
The GOP can either defend the United States or serve the damaged and defective man who is now its president.

Laurie said...

The Crisis Facing America
The country can no longer afford to wait to ascertain why President Trump has subordinated himself to Putin—it must deal with the fact that he has.

John said...

Very interesting links. I really liked the Hillary Clinton piece.

Her crystal ball seemed pretty clear.

Anonymous said...

As somebody said on twitter. We all know that Trump is crook, it's just for Republican, it wasn't a dealbreaker. But in fairness to Republicans, not even I thought an American president, even a Republican president, would publicly bend a knee to Vladimir Putin. Now it's up to Republicans to do something about it.

--Hiram

Sean said...

"Her crystal ball seemed pretty clear."

But her e-mails!

John said...

It was a bit like "the pot calling the kettle black"...

Hopefully we have better options to choose from in 2020.

Sean said...

"It was a bit like "the pot calling the kettle black"..."

I think we're seeing that believing that false equivalency is having disastrous consequences for our country.

John said...

Maybe.

But no risk... No reward...

Sean said...

That's the sort of in-depth political analysis I've come to expect from you.

John said...

I aim to please... :-)