Trumpistan

Someday the true story of Donald Trump’s Russian connection will be told and it will read like a spy novel worthy of Tom Clancy…

It’s the story of a beauty pageant that led to the election of a President. In November of 2013 Donald Trump held the Miss Universe Contest in Moscow. At the time Trump was beyond broke… He was deeply in debt and after five bankruptcies, not a bank in America would lend him money.

For a week Mr. Trump and a bevy of the most beautiful women in the world partied with all the big wigs in Russia… politicos, oligarchs, rock stars, celebrities, even Vladimir Putin himself.

There has been much speculation about what went down in that week of booze, babes and big money, but whatever it was, it changed the course of history. A few months later the Trump organization received a massive infusion of cash from Deutsche Bank… a German banking giant that has routinely paid millions in fines for illegally laundering money for the Russians.

Trump left Moscow with the financial backing he so desperately needed and Putin had his hooks in Trump.

In 2015 Trump announced his candidacy for POTUS and Putin began actively cultivating his asset.

The Mueller report States unequivocally that Russia conducted a systematic misinformation campaign designed to tarnish Trump’s opponents and promote his candidacy.

Russia’s influence in the 2016 election was pervasive and it worked… With Putin’s help Donald J Trump became the 45th President of the United States and he wasted no time paying off the debt he owed to his pal Vladimir… Trump spoke glowingly of him every chance he got… every executive decision benefited Putin.

He ceded the middle east to Russia, withdrew from Syria and allowed Putin to fill the void.

He turned his back on Ukraine, the last bastion standing between Russia and a free Europe.

He disavowed NATO, the alliance that had held Russia at bay for over 70 years. He pulled US troops out of Germany… something the Kremlin has always wanted. At the Helsinki summit, Trump chose to publicly believe Putin over his own intelligence agencies.

He attacked America’s friends and embraced her enemies just as Vladimir wanted. At home Trump became the divider in chief, driving deep divisions between all the different factions of American society.

To divide America from within… to drive a wedge between blacks and whites, rich and poor, left and right, has long been a part of Putin’s KGB playbook.

Russian hackers are inflaming racial tensions across the country, infiltrating radical groups and planting disinformation on social media.

We can only hope that the US Intelligence Services are prepared to address this threat because obviously Mr.Trump isn’t.

-- David Clayton-Thomas

Their talk, however, was the talk of sordid buccaneers: it was reckless without hardihood, greedy without audacity, and cruel without courage; there was not an atom of foresight or of serious intention in the whole batch of them, and they did not seem aware these things are wanted for the work of the world. To tear treasure out of the bowels of the land was their desire, with no more moral purpose at the back of it than there is in burglars breaking into a safe.

-- Joseph Conrad. Heart of Darkness. 1899

"Dangerous time when our country is led by those who will lie about anything,
backed by those who will believe anything,
based on information from media sources that will say anything.
Americans must break out of that bubble and seek truth."

-- James Comey

Kremlin papers appear to show Putin’s plot to put Trump in White House
Memo could provide blockbuster proof of how Russia used Trump
to damage America ... if it's real

All the known times the Trump campaign met with Russians
A Timeline: Russia and President Trump

Mother Jones Detailed Timeline
A Timeline Showing the Full Scale of
Russia’s Unprecedented Interference
in the 2016 Election, and Its Aftermath
Trump Tower Moscow was a much larger deal—
and potential crime—than anyone has realized
with detailed timeline
Timeline: Big moments in Mueller investigation
of Russian meddling in 2016 U.S. election

"If candidate Trump and President Putin had made a corrupt bargain which obligated President Trump to destabilize all U.S. security and trade alliances (especially NATO, which has been Russia’s primary strategic goal for 70 years) and advance the strategic interests of Russia, there’s really nothing more remotely realistic he could have done to accomplish that than what he has in fact done."

-- We’ve Got a Problem. A Big Problem. Josh Marshall

Stop asking "Why is Trump doing that?!"
Instead ask "How does this benefit Putin?"
Answering that question makes Trump's behavior look rational.

-- Leigh Brasington

Troubling Connections Flow Chart
from https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D2odsv-X4AAdruC.jpg

Trump's policy of holding children hostage to win Cong'l funding of his Wall is despicable. Giving in to this demand may end today's suffering, but will only lead to worse things in the future. Compromise is the key to legislation, but concession to evil leads only to more evil. -- Ronald Klain

[Yes, of course, this is fake - but it captures exactly what's happening]

What are they hiding in the girls' and small children's gulags?

Trump seals his fate with Fox interview that will go down in history

It's a good thing Hitler did not win WWII. Otherwise we might be ruled today by a temperamental demagogue fueled by hatred and delusions of grandeur, requiring constant praise and adulation lest anyone incur his wrath. Major Kong