Tag Archives: Trump and the Russians

Blog, Politics

Is Trump Taking Us To A Point Of No Return?

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A bogus attack on an abandoned airfield in Syria, apparently mostly for publicity.   Dropping the “mother of all bombs” in Afghanistan, again, apparently mostly for publicity,  and now this most recent acting out, calling all 100 U.S. Senators to the White House for what appears to have been another publicity stunt, forcing the country to spend money to set up a secure briefing room big enough to hold all those people at the White House when that same secure briefing area already existed for no additional expense on Capitol Hill.   All Trump had to do was send his three or four people over to the Hill, rather than busing 100 senators to the White House.  Is there a method to this madness?  Maybe.  Maybe he wants to make it appear as though he is doing all he can to keep the Congress informed as he ramps up the country for war with North Korea.

So far, none of it, not the bombing  of the abandoned airfield in Syria, or the giant “Mother” of all bombs in Afghanistan or even losing an aircraft carrier battle group as he increases the potential for war with North Korea, has been enough to erase the investigations into his administration’s ties to Vladimir Putin and the Russians.

This is nuts.  U.S. intelligence has informed us that the Russians and Turks have infiltrated Trump’s inner-circle.  It’s the elephant in the middle of the room while one of Trumps’s top advisors, Steve Bannon, openly brags about the effort underway to “deconstruct” our government as hundreds of positions remain unfilled due to personnel not having been nominated by the White House.

We have been warned that we can either fill all those unfilled diplomatic positions to help avoid war, or we will be forced to spend even more money going to war.   Generally speaking, military leaders are not heavily backgrounded in diplomacy.  They are backgrounded in going to war.  At the same time it is important to remember that the nation’s top diplomat, Secretary of State,  Rex Tillerson, has no professional diplomatic experience.   He is an oil company executive.

Mr. Trump says he is going to listen to his generals.   It might be assumed then, that the former CEO of ExxonMobil and a military man nicknamed “Mad Dog” are taking the point for U.S. diplomacy?

How much of this are we supposed to be able to stand?    Why is Congress acting like all this negligent and possibly deranged behavior is okay?  Where will Trump be busing them off to next?  A big lockup somewhere?   Where is the FBI?   Where are the patriots who care more for the country than their party affiliations?

Why, when the Trump Administration orders the United States Senate to get on a couple of buses for an unnecessarily costly and perhaps meaningless visit to the White House (other than giving Donald another opportunity to get all puffed up), did they do it?  Kudos to Bernie Sanders for not going.   Have our senators taken leave of their senses?

Oh wait.   The Republicans are in the majority, so if the Democrats refused to get on the bus, then the Republicans could call the Democrats uncooperative, blaming them for everything and anything that might go wrong with whatever the Donald does or does not plan on doing in the future.   It would be the Democrats fault, even if it wasn’t.   It will be their fault for not getting on the bus. That’s the way it is, when party loyalty trumps loyalty to one’s country.   There’s also the nasty fact that some of the Republicans feel a need to follow Trump’s orders or risk being targeted in their home districts in the next election.

Expect our collective sanity to be stretched to the max over the next few months or maybe even weeks as thinking Americans continue losing sleep.  As for me, I am abandoning the pundits and switching over to old movies as a diversion from being forced to focus on when and where Donald J. Trump will start our next big war in an obvious effort to make his personality issues and connectivity with the Russians go away.

It no longer matters whether Donald J. Trump is doing what he is doing intentionally or whether he is simply oblivious.   The Congress must take steps to put the ship of state back on a course that improves rather than threatens our security before Trump takes us to a point of no return.

This is not a business deal, this  is geopolitics and possibly war.  This is not putting America first.

This is insane.

 

Blog, Politics

Trump’s Ties To Russia – Time To Stop Playing Silly Games And Get Some Answers

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The amount of overt linkage between the Trump campaign (Administration) and the Russians continues to grow, and yet,  much of the media appears to be in denial about just how threatening this situation truly is.

The Guardian, has published an excellent piece connecting the dots on at least six individuals from inside the Trump camp, with contacts pointing back to the Kremlin.    The most recent, is the new Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, who had two meetings with the Russian Ambassador, while Sessions was a sitting Senator and “surrogate” for the Trump campaign.   Then there was Paul Manafort, who appeared from out of nowhere to take over the Trump campaign, only to be summarily dismissed when news surfaced of his ties to a Russian-backed government in Ukraine, where Mr. Putin went to war, sending troops into Crimea, seizing it militarily and presenting a whole new military threat to the Balkans and the European Union.

There is also former National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, Foreign Policy Adviser, Carter Page and attorney, Michael Cohen, not to mention our new Secretary of State and former CEO of Exxon, Rex Tillerson, whose ties to Putin and Russian oil are now infamous.    A man with no experience in government diplomacy who is now, nevertheless, the chief diplomat for the most powerful nation on earth.

And then there’s Roger Stone.   A former Trump adviser who was also investigated by the FBI for alleged contact with Russia, and who, like Paul Manafort, was fired from the campaign.  Stone,  denies having any contact with the Russians.

If all of that isn’t enough,  a bit of brilliant reportage by Rachel Maddow the other night (please see preceding post) tied in Trump’s new Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to the Bank of Cypress, where he is partners with Russian oligarch and former KGB agent and Putin ally,  Viktor Vekselberg.    Question:   To what degree is the Commerce Secretary of the United States benefiting from Russian money moving through his bank?   Where is the money coming from?Where is it going?  Does anyone even care?   Is our government now being run by the Russians?

Why, whenever he’s asked about Putin and the Russians, does our president act like they are beyond reproach, even going so far as to insist that America, with its democratic tradition, is no better than this current Russian oligarchy/dictatorship?

When questioned by Bill O’Reilly about the bloodthirsty ways with which Putin deals with his critics, Trump,  replied, “There are a lot of killers. We got a lot of killers. What, you think our country is so innocent?” 

That is ridiculous to the point of being asinine and  thoroughly un-American.  We do not deal with journalists or political critics by having them murdered or sent to a gulag.   We aren’t the country that had six diplomats die in four months.   That would be the Russians.

When listening to his repeated excuses and inexplicable ongoing defense of Putin and the Russians, it feels as though either A: Trump is being blackmailed, or he is B: being blackmailed.   Putin and his buddies are former KGB, not a bunch of diplomacy-first advocates for international peace and goodwill, and their operatives have an ongoing and abnormal connection to the administration of Donald J. Trump.

The White House is calling efforts to look into the Trump/Russia connection, “a witch hunt.”    Guess what the Russians are saying it is?  That very same thing, “a witch hunt.”    Almost like it was an agreed to talking point?    What the hell’s going on here?

There should be calls for impeachment.  Instead, Republican cowards continue making excuses for a growing pile of evidence showing a clear danger to the country from one of our oldest enemies, a Russian government that has already launched a cyber attack on our political process while possibly corrupting and to a degree,  maybe even controlling a sitting president.   How can we know,  when Mr. Trump continues his refusal to release his tax records?

It’s time to pull our heads from the sand and demand that our elected officials answer the critical question on the degree to which the Russians have influenced and possibly continue to influence the President of the United States.    It’s not like the evidence isn’t there.

The time for denial is long past.  Barring the political will for impeachment, this calls for a complete and totally independent investigation, far removed from the reach of politics, as so many of our politicians have shown themselves to be without sufficient honor to do the jobs they were elected to do.

The Russian bear is standing in the middle of the room laughing at us, threatening the existence of our democratic way of life.   Foreign powers, like the Russians, now have the ability to funnel untold millions of dollars into our political campaigns thanks to an incredibly bad ruling (Citizens United) by the U.S. Supreme Court. We the people must demand a resolution.   This is not acceptable.