The Entire Republican Party Is Becoming A Russian Asset, Washington Post
- The Entire Republican Party Is Becoming A Russian Asset - By Paul Waldman, The Washington Post, July 20, 2018.
In the past few days, President Trump has given at least some Republicans reason to express displeasure over his relationship with Russia. First he performed a pathetic ritual of subservience before Vladimir Putin, standing beside the Russian leader after a private meeting between the two, which no aides were permitted to attend and dismissing the copious evidence of a Russian attack on the 2016 election in deference to Putins word. Then we learned that Putin had suggested that we make Americans available to the Kremlin for questioning, including Michael McFaul, the former U.S. ambassador to Russia, in exchange for allowing us to question some of the agents who carried out the cyberattack. Trump had called it an incredible offer, and the White House said he was considering it, before finally backing down after the Senate unanimously passed a resolution condemning the idea.
But look past the modest number of Republicans saying that Trump has gone a bit too far here or here or there, and you see a very different picture. The truth is that the entire GOP is well on its way to becoming a Russian asset.
Are there a few Republican dissenters? Sure. But perhaps were having difficulty viewing that whole picture because whats happening is so utterly bonkers that we cant quite bring ourselves to see it clearly. So lets review just some of the things we know: In 2016, the campaign of the Republican nominee for president was approached multiple times by representatives of the Russian government offering to help them win the election. These offers were welcomed with enthusiasm. The campaign was also led for a time by a political consultant with deep financial and personal ties to a Russian oligarch and a Kremlin puppet in Ukraine. Multiple members of the Trump team had contacts with the Russian government that they later lied to conceal.
As part of its attack on the American electoral system, Russian intelligence hacked into Democratic Party systems.
Some of the information it found there was released publicly and promoted gleefully by Republicans at all levels in order to help the Trump campaign; information relating to down-ballot campaigns was passed to Republicans, who used it in order to maintain their hold on the House of Representatives. Amid the insistence from the intelligence community that in 2018 Russia will likely attempt to once again penetrate the computer systems of state election agencies, Republicans this week killed an effort to provide funding to states to bolster the security of their election systems.
As part of a lengthy effort to infiltrate the National Rifle Association, an important Republican interest group, an alleged Russian spy began a romance with a Republican activist, met multiple Republican leaders and fostered a relationship between American gun advocates and Russians..The NRA dramatically increased its spending on the 2016 presidential campaign from past years, pouring $30 million into their effort to elect Trump. The FBI is investigating whether that money may have illegally come from Russia, funneled to the organization by Torshin. The Trump administration has announced a change to IRS rules so that groups like the NRA will no longer have to identify their donors on their tax forms, making such money almost impossible to trace in the future.
Over the last few years, the Christian right, another key part of the GOP coalition, has grown increasingly close to Putin, whom they see as an ally in a global clash of civilizations between Christianity and Islam. In Congress, Republicans have undertaken an aggressive campaign to discredit and, many of them plainly hope, shut down the probe into the Russian attack on America. Fox News, which functions as the propaganda arm of the Republican Party, has aired relentless attacks on the Russia investigation and calls for it to be shut down. ~ MORE, https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/the-entire-republican-party-is-becoming-a-russian-asset/ar-BBKSkAu?li=BBnb7Kz
U.S. President Donald Trump, left, bids farewell to Russian President Vladimir Putin at the end of their press conference after their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, Monday, July 16, 2018.
skylucy
(3,734 posts)And this is why all Americans MUST be patriots and VOTE BLUE.
appalachiablue
(41,054 posts)>"Despite the mountain of unambiguous evidence of the Russian attack in 2016, the overwhelming majority of Republican voters continue to say no such attack occurred...Hard-core Trump supporters are beginning to argue that even if Russia did attack the American electoral system, it was actually a good thing because it helped Donald Trump get elected."
GOTV!!
beachbum bob
(10,437 posts)See my other posts for details
appalachiablue
(41,054 posts)EndGOPPropaganda
(1,117 posts)Koch
Murdoch
Mercer
and other GOP billionaires run propaganda networks to incite hate against liberals to get votes for tax cuts.
This is the core problem. The Russians didnt have to do much in 2016 but exploit the hate that the GOP has created with its propaganda machine
dhill926
(16,234 posts)he's got it right....
elleng
(130,156 posts)Liberalagogo
(1,770 posts)That ship sailed a LONG time ago.
Seiad
(55 posts)should be dealt with accordingly.
calimary
(80,699 posts)Sure looks like it to me. Treason. High crimes and misdemeanors. Sheeesh - where do we even begin with all the high crimes and misdemeanors? I, for one, am hoping those tax returns finally see the light of day. As Michael Avenatti said when he first arrived on the scene, "those who have nothing to hide - hide nothing."
DemocracyMouse
(2,275 posts)And hit the streets and interwebs NOW. Don't wait people...
THE 007 BONDING ACTION METHOD (B.A.M.)
1) Talk to everyone you meet, including retailers, about voting
2) Photocopy and distribute that Wash. Post statement (and other quotes). Yes, hardcopy.
3) Make a "VOTE DEMOCRATS NOV. 6" sign that covers your ENTIRE bumper. Don't mention T or the Repugs by name, just extol the virtues of Democrats. ($15/hr. Min. wage, Medicare for All, Net Neutrality, Infrastructure for a People's Economy, Women's/LGBTQ/Immigrant's rights, etc.)
4) Throw a party and BOND over doing these tactics as a group for motivation and support. Call it the 007 Bonding Action Method (BAM).
5) Yes, hit the interwebs to post these PERSONAL street tactics. Include 007 B.A.M. branding and tactics in your communications so it goes viral (among young people especially). Or make up your own.
with love,
Democracy Mouse
Amaryllis
(9,523 posts)need to figure out that this happened before the election and they were complicit in the theft.
dalton99a
(81,070 posts)kyburbonkid
(251 posts)Just clip at trump's neckline, and fill will in with a witty thing. Bada-boom! Yard sign,
sandensea
(21,530 posts)Since we ourselves haven't been able to since 1972.
njhoneybadger
(3,910 posts)appalachiablue
(41,054 posts)in the 1930s & became a big anti-communist, John Birch Society founder. He also worked for the Third Reich on a Hitler project. ~ The twists and turns of doing international business.
Wiki, FRED C. KOCH: In 1929, Koch's partner Lewis Winkler's former employer, Universal Oil Products (now UOP LLC), sued Winkler-Koch for patent infringement. Also that year, nearly three years before the patent case went to trial, Winkler-Koch signed contracts to build petroleum distillation plants in the Soviet Union, which did not recognize intellectual property rights. This extended litigation effectively put Winkler-Koch out of business in the U.S. for several years.
*"Unable to succeed at home, Koch found work in the Soviet Union". Between 1929 and 1932 Winkler-Koch "trained Bolshevik engineers and helped Stalin's regime set up fifteen modern oil refineries" in the Soviet Union. "Over time, however, Stalin brutally purged several of Koch's Soviet colleagues.
Koch was deeply affected by the experience, and regretted his collaboration." The company also built installations in countries throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
*Koch partnered with William Rhodes Davis to build the third-largest oil refinery serving the Third Reich, a project which was personally approved by Adolf Hitler. Koch President and COO David L. Robertson acknowledged that Winkler-Koch provided the cracking unit for the 1934 Hamburg refinery, but said that it was but one of many "iconic" American companies doing business in Germany at the time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_C._Koch
certainot
(9,090 posts)manafort was a mccain campaign cochair when limbaugh forced mccain to choose palin. then in 2009 limbaugh used a russian hack to blow "climategate" up and sabotage obama at copenhagen - saving putin billions a year in fossil royalties, then in 2011 limbaugh pushed debt default - would the kochs like that? and so on with benghazi, then dissed bush and rubio and made excuses for trump, and now all out on trump defense and blowing up the "deep state" meme since inauguration and attacking mueller etc.
limbaugh leads 1500 or so stations with blowhards that are even more spineless than the gop reps standing up to the dittohead teabag army. and since they take paid callers - how long have russian think tanks been calling them?
then there's the fact that sam nunberg told gabriel sherman for NY magazine 4/3/16 that in 2014 he listened to 1000s of hours of talk radio to help them strategize for the election. that would be a good way to collude without direct communication.
coincidentally, limbaugh has been taking a lot of days off lately - maybe he's been seeing mueller.
Sneederbunk
(14,208 posts)dem in texas
(2,672 posts)I knew Mitch McConnell got money from the Russians for his Super Pac. Today, I read that over 20 Russians donated to the NRA and the NRA is one of the major source of money to pay for their elections - Follow the money.
No Wonder the Republicans let Trump do anything he wants.
CrispyQ
(36,231 posts)That's what's galling to me. People I've known & respected for many years, are OK with the usurping of our government as long as it's their side benefiting from it. I won't even go into the fact that I thought they were decent human beings & they support one of the most vile, vulgar men to ever be in the public sphere. WTF? I will never view these people the same. Never. They will always have the taint of supporting Donald J. Trump.