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Sunday, July 24, 2016

Like Kevin McCarthy, Putin Wants to Bring Down Hillary's Poll Numbers

The Berners are using the DNC leaks to gain concessions with just a day before the Dem convention starts.

They got a pound of flesh in barring Debbie Wasserman-Schultz from having a major speaking role at the convention.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/dnc-chair-debbie-wasserman-schultz-not-speak-convention-article-1.2723552

This is wrong as nothing in these leaks shows Ms. Wasserman-Schultz to have done anything wrong. But this has never been about reality with the Berners but sour grapes over losing the election.

Now they get their pound of flesh in taking down Wasserman-Schultz who has done such great work for the Democratic party.

Ok, I'm not happy about this. But the good news is this seems to have mollified Bernie and friends. What's important is that the Dems showcase the huge contrast between us and the gruesome Hitler Youth convention we saw last week in Cleveland.

Here is what Jason Taylor is saying over at the Insurgent. Yes that's a conservative site.

"After the trauma inflicted on the nation by the GOP — I mean the Party of Trump — four day hate orgy, I welcome Hillary’s boring VP choice and hope the Democratic four day convention is at least that boring as well. It will be a relief and the contrast will make Hillary, Kaine and the Democrats look incredibly good — even if boring — after the last four depressing days of nonsensical anger."

http://theresurgent.com/donald-trump-is-in-trouble/

HT: Tom Brown

So we don't want anything to overshadow this contrast that even conservatives like Taylor are welcoming.

Still, we also need to step back and ask: why is Putin trying to put his finger on the scales against Hilary Clinton? The timing was clearly meant to throw a monkey wrench into Dem unity.

It looks to have failed as the issue was resolved yesterday. But this should tell you what the stakes are in this election.

A vote for Trump is a vote to make Vladimir Putin great again.

"Outraged Sanders supporters might also keep in mind that the Wikileaks email dump is almost certainly a favor to Donald Trump from the Russian government, even if Wikileaks wasn’t directly involved. What we’ve already learned about the Trump-Putin connection would have been enough to force a presidential candidate to step aside in past election cycles. Now no one seems to care."

https://dankennedy.net/2016/07/23/the-wikileaks-dnc-email-dump-is-putins-latest-gift-to-trump/

"You never see Putin hacking the RNC do you?

"Putin’s Puppet."

"If the Russian president could design a candidate to undermine American interests—and advance his own—he’d look a lot like Donald Trump."

"Yesterday, Donald Trump told the New York Times that he would not necessarily come to the aid of NATO states threatened by Russia and would make his decision to defend them from an attack after reviewing whether they “have fulfilled their obligations to us.” It was the latest statement from Trump that was likely greeted with delight in the Kremlin. Earlier this month, Franklin Foer wrote on the frightening ways in which Trump seems to be playing right into Vladimir Putin's plans for destabilizing the West.​"

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

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

"Donald Trump is like the Kremlin’s favored candidates, only more so. He celebrated the United Kingdom’s exit from the EU. He denounces NATO with feeling. He is also a great admirer of Vladimir Putin. Trump’s devotion to the Russian president has been portrayed as buffoonish enthusiasm for a fellow macho strongman. But Trump’s statements of praise amount to something closer to slavish devotion. In 2007, he praised Putin for “rebuilding Russia.”

A year later he added, “He does his work well. Much better than our Bush.” When Putin ripped American exceptionalism in a New York Times op-ed in 2013, Trump called it “a masterpiece.” Despite ample evidence, Trump denies that Putin has assassinated his opponents: “In all fairness to Putin, you’re saying he killed people. I haven’t seen that.” In the event that such killings have transpired, they can be forgiven: “At least he’s a leader.” And not just any old head of state: “I will tell you that, in terms of leadership, he’s getting an A.”

"That’s a highly abridged sampling of Trump’s odes to Putin. Why wouldn’t the Russians offer him the same furtive assistance they’ve lavished on Le Pen, Berlusconi, and the rest? Indeed, according to Politico’s Michael Crowley, Russian propaganda has gone full throttle for Trump, using its Russia Todayapparatus to thrash Hillary Clinton and hail the courage of Trump’s foreign policy. (Sample headline: “Trump Sparks NATO Debate: ‘Obsolete’ or ‘Tripwire That Could Lead to World War III.’ ”) Russian intelligence services hacked the Democratic National Committee’s servers, purloining its opposition research files on Trump and just about everything else it could find. They also wormed their way into the computers of the Clinton Foundation, a breach reported by Bloomberg. And though it may be a mere coincidence, Trump’s inner circle is populated with advisers and operatives who have long careers advancing the interests of the Kremlin."

"We shouldn’t overstate Putin’s efforts, which will hardly determine the outcome of the election. Still, we should think of the Trump campaign as the moral equivalent of Henry Wallace’s communist-infiltrated campaign for president in 1948, albeit less sincere and idealistic than that. A foreign power that wishes ill upon the United States has attached itself to a major presidential campaign."

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2016/07/vladimir_putin_has_a_plan_for_destroying_the_west_and_it_looks_a_lot_like.html

If there was ever a time to keep an eye on the prize, this is it.




8 comments:

  1. You beat me to it: I was going to suggest you think about doing a post on this very subject.

    The press should get in Trump and Trump surrogate faces and quiz them about Putin and Russian aggression. Get them on record either condemning it or acting suspicious.

    This is fucked up. So I wonder if "wikileaks" has been a GRU operation from the get go?

    I notice Caleb Howe and Kyle Foley at RedState have been hitting this wikileaks thing a bit. I was happy to see one of the commenters (LeaOK) over there said this:

    Makes you wonder what the RNC emails would have said, had this happened to them. Can't imagine anyone would have been taking sides between Cruz and Trump.

    In fact that was a sentiment expressed by several commenters.

    So the "boo hoo, if it had been the RNC the 'liberal press' would have been a lot meaner!" line isn't really cutting the mustard even with some of the RedState readership: they KNOW that if it had been the RNC those emails would have been MUCH more embarrassing.

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    1. Here's the link:
      http://www.redstate.com/absentee/2016/07/24/dncleak-fallout-apology-speaking-slot-revoked-tim-kaines-grande-spanish-backfire/

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  2. Mike, seriously though: Where's the investigative journalism here?

    If some newsworthy connections and funny business can be found between wikileaks and Putin actively using dirty tricks to help Trump, there's no reason that wouldn't become a story 100x as big as the actual content of the emails.

    Plus, how do we know that the Russians aren't editing the emails to make them look worse than they are?

    If the press does it's job (actually does a bit more than it's usual job and actually investigates something) and with a little luck (real ties to Putin uncovered) then this wikileaks thing has the potential to BACKFIRE in Putin's (and by implication Trump's) face, right??? Lol.

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    1. Mark Murray of NBC says the media is looking into this issue of Putin leaking the DNC info.

      He certainly wants Trump to win-he also tries to help Right wing candidates and parties like Mary La Pen and Golden Dawn in Europe

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  3. Not only that, but this is a grave matter of national security, so the CIA and NSA should be digging into this ... only they're in a bit of a tougher situation since they can't be seen to be directly helping Clinton get elected (nor should they). However, in the course of doing their jobs if it comes out there's a connection and this is reported to the WH ... shit.... it kind of makes you wonder if Obama is sitting on something right now that's making him bite his tongue: perhaps he knows who's behind this but to leak it to the press (perhaps it's classified info) would just do more potential harm than good. Man, that would **SUCK**.

    Fuck, this sucks!

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  4. I'm glad you commented here, Tom, as now I can see I didn't finish formatting this post. Wow. Fixed now.

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  5. Putin plays Trump for the colossal narcissistic dope that he is. Trump in turn plays the GOP electorate for the colossal xenophobic personality worshiping chumps that they are.

    I wonder if E. Harding and Art Deco realize they're being played for fools, ultimately by the likes of Putin.

    I with there was a replacement to Trump University that's still in business... because I'd be asking every Trump supporter out there: "Would you enroll in Trump University II?"

    I think that a bunch of erstwhile Trump Chumps have subconsciously absorbed that Trump is nothing more than a 2nd rate con man whose word is worthless ... the trouble is they don't care (as long as Trump is just running for president and they aren't considering actually spending their own money on some sort of Trump good or service).

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